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SCIENCE OF HISTORY 



ON AN EVANGELICAL BASLS. 



BY EUREKA 



Xasuville, Tenn.: 
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

PRINT EI) FOR THE AUTHOR. 

1882. 



THE 



SCIENCE OF HISTORY 



m AN -EVANGELICAL BASIS. 



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7). ^ , ^aynJjJ^- 



BY EUREKA? 



I 



.fAUG 7 1832/1 



Nashville, Tenn.: 
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

PRINT KP rOR THE AUTIIOli. 

1882. 

7^ 



CoPYKiGHT Secured. 



3^ 



THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 

ON AN EVANGELICAL BASIS, 



CHAPTER I 



THE Science of History has not yet been discov- 
ered; its discovery has hardly .been attempted, 
for its existence has been only vaguely suspected. 
It seems strange that this should be so, when we 
consider the great importance of the subject, and 
the almost unlimited range of scientific effort in our 
day. The daring spirit that animates the scientific 
mind laughs at apparent impossibilities, and has 
demonstrated its triumphant power by vast achieve- 
ments which have repeatedly startled the world. 
But History has hitherto eluded or defied its all-com- 
prehending grasp. It is the more surprising that 
History has escaped the peiietrating analysis of Sci- 
ence, since this subject, as a general study, has not 
been neglected by any means in recent times. On 
the contrary, never before has History received such 
extensive and careful attention from the learned. 
Every source of original information has been ex- 
plored with laborious research. Secondary author- 
ities have been reviewed, collated, and critically 
studied to great advantage. Distinct Sciences, as 

(3) 



4 The Science of History 

Archaeology and Philology, have been special!}^ cul- 
tivated, that they might be forced to pay a generous 
tribute to the solution of great historical problems. 
Brilliant professors and practical statesmen have 
made it the favorite field of their literary labor, and 
thus brought to its aid the united resources of ge- 
nius, learning, and experience. This labor has not 
been in vain. It has thrown a flood of light upon 
the disordered march of humanit}^ through the cen- 
turies of time. Many seemingly hopeless compli- 
cations have been simplified and explained — obscure 
transactions have been illustrated ; while the epoch- 
making scenes in the great drama of nations have 
been variously described by men of difl:erent tem- 
peraments and education, reproducing in their sev- 
eral prejudices the conflicting forces of the original 
events; so that, in the crossed and blended lights 
of critics and advocates, the great deeds of the past 
stand out with life-like distinctness on the canvas 
of our imaginations. 

But not one of these writers has attempted to 
assert or define with scientilic precision the laws 
which govern the vast and varied range of histori- 
cal events, nor traced successfully the subtle track 
of moral and religious principle which runs like a 
golden thread through every part, and binds the 
whole into a beautiful and grand system of provi- 
dential wisdom, justice, and power. Indeed, it 
seems scarcely to have entered into the thoughts of 
the wise that the Science of History might one day 
take its place beside that of Astronomy for the sim- 
plicity of its principles and the exactness of its ver- 



On an Eoangelical Basis. 5 

ifications. Of course, we do not mean to say that 
men have not, from time immemorial, moralized 
and philosophized over the lessons of History. One 
of the most familiar claims and admissions in the 
literature of Christendom is that of the amenability 
of History to some sort of systematic government, 
either intrinsic or extraneous. From the times of 
Bossuet and Vico to those of Comte and Guizot, 
various extensive and ingenious systems of Philoso- 
phy have been constructed upon the data supplied 
by ]N"arrative History; but in every instance they 
are so vague in principles and results, so utterly in- 
capable of verifications, that they cannot claim to 
be scientific in character. Science is always con- 
sistent with itself; but so unscientific are these Phi- 
losophies that the hand of each system is against 
that of every other. Indeed, the very spirit that 
animates the Philosophies of History seems in- 
spired by the principle that History is not, and can- 
not be, a proper field for scientific study. So that, 
having no scientific aims at the beginning, it is but 
natural they yield no scientific results at the end. 

Several causes conspire to produce this fixilure of 
Science to illuminate the mysteries of History, two 
of which we shall briefly discuss: 

1. There is an apparent incompatibility between 
the innate, generally-admitted belief in the free- 
agency of man, and the claim that historical events 
are determined and controlled by exact, invariable 
laws. This can be shown to be a superficial difii- 
culty by a brief argument. ^"0 believer in the 
Bible will deny that a minute and perfect system of 



6 The Science of History 

Providence presides over all outward human aftairs. 
This Providence determines, with imperial decision, 
the circumstances surrounding our lives ; but it is 
not construed as inconsistent with free-agency, be- 
cause its jurisdiction is confined to the outward 
condition of man, and affects his spiritual freedom 
only indirectly. ISTow Science, from an evangelical 
stand-point, is only a systematic explanation of the 
works of God; and if we can discover the true, 
systematic explanation of the providential govern- 
ment of God over the nations of the world, we shall 
have as complete a Science of History as it is pos- 
sible to obtain. This achievement would be no 
more incompatible with the doctrine of free-agency 
than the dogma of Providence is, for it is only an 
elucidation of that dogma in actual operation. 

It will not serve an opponent to assert that these 
laws are so hidden and spiritual as to defy the pow- 
ers of man to discover and formulate them cor- 
rectl3\ Not a century since many laws of Chemis- 
try and Electricit}^ were shrouded in the same pro- 
found myster}^ but now they are so clear that we 
wonder only that they remained hidden so long. 
Besides, it is but reasonable to suppose that as Sci- 
ence, in the hands of skeptics, has been allowed to 
militate against religion, it may now have a special 
spiritual gift by which it shall be compelled to 
prove and magnify that religion against which it 
has been perverted so freely and so long. 

2. The almost inextricable confusion of clatci 
which reigns in the domain of History presents a 
stupendous difficulty to the discovery of the princi- 



On an Evangelical Basis. 7 

pies upon which they all depend. Bat this does 
not imply that there are no overruling and connect- 
ing principles. The aspects of I^ature to the untu- 
tored savage present many apparently conflicting 
events, which are really beautiful examples of order 
to the man of Natural Science. If we discover the 
true principles of Providence, we shall find that 
they, like other scientific laws, have in themselves 
a marvelous power of reducing chaos to order. 
Things apparently antagonistic will be found, in- 
the light of correct principles, to possess unsus- 
pected features in common. Just as, in Natural 
Philosophy, the falling of a stone and the rising of 
eider-down through the air are both due to the law 
of gravitation, though the phenomena are exactly 
opposite in outward appearance, so in Chemistry 
the terrible explosion of nitro-glycerine and the 
suffocating power of carbonic acid are both ex- 
plained by the law of affinity. 

Fortunately, we have already supplied in the in- 
fallible word of revelation the fundamental princi- 
ples upon which Historical Science must ever rest; 
for, as we have already said, this Science is possible 
only as it discovers the track and unfolds the meth- 
ods of Divine Providence. In the Bible is found 
the only rational and adequate statement of Prov- 
idence that man possesses. There is revealed its 
origin, its scope, its perfection, its subservience to 
moral and religious ends, and its glorious consum- 
mation in carrying the blessings of true religion to 
all the nations of the earth. The Bible freely reveals 
all that is necessary to a full understanding of the 



8 The Science of History 

divine action in History. Hence, it is not a pre- 
sumptuous, but really a pious task, to study and 
discover the Science of Histor}', since it involves 
no proud intrusion of the fleshly mind into the 
reserved depths of divine counsels, but only a 
humble, conscientious, careful application of the 
principles He has given to a clearer elucidation of 
human experience and destiny. But according to 
the Bible, and the voice of common sense, History 
is the joint product of God and man. As in the 
kingdom of grace man is saved by man, and God 
accepts human co-workers in carrying on his cause, 
so in the kingdom of Providence man is divinely 
ruled, but it is through human instruments, and in 
accordance with the principles of human nature and 
the earthly surroundings of man. Hence, there are 
certain fundamental and necessary principles in 
Historical Science that are derived from the hu- 
man side of the great subject; and the application 
even of revealed principles to explain Providence 
in History cannot reach a correct result unless 
guided by a correct analysis of the human factor 
involved. Human life, in its historical bearings, 
naturally and exhaustively divides itself into four 
grand attributes — the physical nature, the mental 
faculties, the emotional capacities, and the moral 
powers. Corresponding with these, man's historical 
motives, purposes, and actions, should be classified 
into four divisions: 1. The domestic, or social; 2. 
The political, ornational; 3. The ecclesiastical, or 
international; 4. The spiritual, or ecumenical. Of 
course, these divisions are never entirely distinct 



On an Evangelical Basis. 9 

from, or independent of, one another; for while 
man is acting in his highest capacity as a spiritual 
being, he does not for a moment lose his true phys- 
ical character. But one or the other of these ele- 
ments is always in the ascendency, and, by reason 
of its predominance, gives its characteristics to the 
action of the hour. But though these divisions thus 
interlap and coalesce, they will be found of indis- 
pensable utility in discussing the Science of History, 
just as similar classifications of mental faculties, 
though they are necessarily indivisible, are essen- 
tial to the successful treatment of Psychology. 

Having indicated some of the first principles in- 
volved in our subject, we now proceed to state the 
propositions which we believe to lie at the basis of 
this Science, and will then endeavor to illustrate 
and confirm them by numerous citations from the 
course of Ancient and Modern History. 

I. All crises or events of History having social, v 
political, ecclesiastical, or spiritual significance, re- 
volve in cycles of time of fixed and unchanging 
durations. 

II. Each class of crises or events revolves in its 
own peculiar cycle, as follows: Social crises in terms 
of four years, political crises in terms of forty years, 
ecclesiastical crises in terms of four hundred years, 
and spiritual crises in terms of four thousand years. 



10 The Science of History 



CHAPTER II. 

OTT account of the immense time involved, the 
comparative brevit}^ of History, and poverty of 
data, for at least one-half of the world's career, it is 
impossible to give the spiritual cycles of History 
as full iUustration as is desirable; but the items 
here adduced to prove its truthfulness are as sat- 
isfactory as the nature of the case admits, and 
combine, without exception, to support the theory 
advanced. 

I. Adam and Jesus stand at the head of spiritual 
epochs of marked and exactly opposite characteris- 
tics. Sacred History contrasts with impressive force 
their respective places in the career and destiny of 
the race. The lirst Adam was made a living soul; 
the second Adam (Jesus) was made a quickening 
spirit. By the first came sin and death; by the 
second came atonement and resurrection. Usher, 
in making a careful compilation of chronology from 
the best historical source, computes that an interval 
of exactly four thousand years intervened between 
the creation of Adam and the birth of Christ. 
Some authors of late years have endeavored to dis- 
credit the chronology of Usher, because of a fan- 
cied necessity of conceding a greater age to the 
world in accordance with the w^ild estimates of the 
radical school of geologists ; but it is an unques- 
tionable fact that the Hebrew Scriptures are the 



On an Evangelical Basis. 11 

most authentic, conscientiously-prepared, and care- 
fully-preserved historical records of the race, and 
they should be preeminent in authority on pure- 
ly historical subjects. Therefore, we take Usher as 
our general guide in this treatise. 

II. The dispersion of the human race after the 
Deluge was caused by sin; it is therefore properly 
classed as a spiritual event. Unfortunately, its pre- 
cise date cannot now be fixed, but several consider- 
ations almost demonstrate that it took place in the 
latter part of the twenty-second century B.C. 

Before that time the family of Noah would not 
have been so numerous as to have led to the disper- 
sion; and had it occurred later, we should have had 
in Prohme History more distinct legends and fuller 
accounts of so great an event. Doubtless the evil 
w^hich led to this signal providence was, like those 
of subsequent times, of slow growth, and occupied 
most of the century between 2200 and 2100 B.C. 
The great barriers then instituted between the na- 
tions of the earth by the God of Providence have 
retained their divisive power almost intact for four 
thousand years. From their grim ramparts forty 
centuries look down on us; but who that has stud- 
ied the progress of this nineteenth century but real- 
izes that these ancient walls are being rapidh^, mys- 
teriously removed by the same providential hand 
that raised them up? Railways, steam-ships, tele- 
graphs, lightning printing-presses, postal unions, 
geographical explorations, popular governments, 
and missionary work, are conspiring with ever-in- 
creasing energy to restore the lost brotherhood of 



12 The Science of History 

man; and we cannot doubt that great achievements 
on this line of human progress will crown the his- 
tory of the near future. 

III. In close connection with the dispersion is 
narrated in Sacred History the usurpations and des- 
potic career of l^imrod. He was the institutor of 
autocratic government in the race of I^oah. The 
old patriarchal governments, as is clear from the 
analogy of Eastern tribes in our day, was a mild, 
almost nominal rulership, resting upon the consent 
and affections of the subject; but since the evil 
example of ]S[imrod, the human race has been gen- 
erally subjected to monarchical oppression of vari- 
ous kinds. 

Republican governments have prevailed in small 
areas and for short periods, but the virus of Nim- 
rod's sin, too tamely submitted to by the race at 
first, has sooner or later shown itself everywhere; 
it has infected the world, and caused innumerable 
sufferings among men. But in the hitter half of 
the eighteenth century A.D., the incisive dogma — 
"All men are born free and equal" — became the 
corner-stone of American liberty and French repub- 
licanism. It has ever since been as leaven in the 
mass of Christendom, preparing with irresistible 
power the way of the universal Republic, or at least 
compelling monarchies and aristocracies to concede 
the most liberal privileges and enlarged powers to 
their nominal subjects. The growth of this great 
principle has lately extorted a constitution even 
from the Turkish Sultan. Japan is on the high- 
road to constitutional freedom, and every indication 



On an Evangelical Basis. 



10 



points to the probability that by the close of this 
century China and India will be marching in the 
same direction. 

Absolute monarchy has always rested, as at the 
beginning, on a basis of spiritual depravity. The 
struo'de to dislods-e it from its evil intrenchments 
has been a long and desperate one, during which 
four thousand years have rolled by; but such is the 
spiritual regeneration of the race, secured by ad- 
vancing Christianity, that victory is now assured. 
The day when a king's word could till the world 
with woe is rapidly passing away, and when it goes, 
it does so never to return. 

IV. Domestic slavery is an ancient and wide- 
spread institution. Its origin cannot be accounted 
for but by the spiritual degeneracy of mankind. 
Had E'oah's descendants lived uprightly, no occasion 
for slavery could have arisen among them: it could 
not have come from famine or want, since true hu- 
manity would have dictated that no such ungener- 
ous advantage should be taken of a neighbor's 
necessities ; it could not have arisen by right of cap- 
tivity, since in that case there would have been no 
war ; it could not have come from fugitives seeking 
asylums, since there would have been no fugitives 
but those from justice, and these would have been 
extradited or treated more generously than reduced 
to slavery. The malediction of Noah against Ca- 
naan points directly to the theory that it was spe- 
cially connected with sin. When it began to be 
practiced by Noah's descendants we do not know 
exactlv. Even as early as the time of Abraham it 



14 The Science of History 

existed among the best men of the day, and is spok- 
en of as a well-established custom ; so that we are 
justified in assigning its origin as coeval, or nearly 
so, with the great apostasy of Nimrod. If this is 
correct, the vast eftbrts and large success in all 
Christian and Mohammedan countries during this 
centur}^ to extinguish slavery is another striking 
illustration of the four-thousand-year period in Hu- 
man History. The coincidence deserves to be 
marked too, that as we have shown that slavery 
almost certainly arose when political and military 
despotism came into existence, so in modern times 
the movement to eradicate slavery has followed as 
one of the correlated results of advancing political 
freedom in the world. 

V. "War was a natural consequence of the dis- 
persion, so long as the different tribes occupied 
contiguous territories, and any of them were ruled 
by selfish, ambitious chiefs. When the tribes grew 
into nations, and became more deeply involved in 
the errors of false religion, war only assumed larger 
proportions, fiercer forms, and more frequent occur- 
rence. War, keeping pace with the progress of 
sin — upon which it is founded — has prevailed so 
constantly that some philosophers have considered 
man naturally a fighting animal; but in the day 
when true religion will gain a deeper hold on the 
race, it will fall down dead at the feet of the Prince 
of Peace. Hence the prophet speaks of the anni- 
hilation of war as one of the incidents of the regen- 
erated humanity that Christianity is working out 
for the world. Even now we can see that this mon- 



On an Ecangelical Basis. 15 

ster is weakening in bis terrible power to desolate 
tbe eartb. Witbin sixty-five years past tbere has 
been no general war in Europe; and bardly an in- 
ternational war, involving two or more nations, bas 
lasted during tbis time more tban one year of active 
campaigning. Tbis is a great gain for peace, com- 
pared witb otber periods of similar lengtb. Tbe 
vast growtb of commerce is exerting a powerful 
cbeck upon all warlike movements, and there are 
great parties growing up in all tbe leading States ot 
the world who are resolutely opposed to war except 
in cases of tbe sternest necessity. Tbe siren song, 
*'^The empire is peace," made France unanimous 
for ^N'apoleon in 1852, and Germany equally enthu- 
siastic for William in 1870. These incidents show 
bow the masses yearn for peace, and that tbe prog- 
ress of popular government advances tbe cause of 
peace. Tbe w^orld w^ill pay undying honors to tbe 
name of Gladstone wdien it comes to realize bow 
much he has contributed to its achievement of per- 
petual peace. In tbis paragraph we assign the ori- 
gin of war in the race of ISToab to a period just 
subsequent to tbe dispersion ; hence, if its terrible 
reign is to last exactly four thousand years, we could 
not realize deliverance until the progress of Chris- 
tian civilization restores more fully tbe lost brother- 
hood of man, and establishes more clearly tbe in- 
terdependence of nations. 

VI. Inspired truth assures us that tbe race of 
ISToab bad been preserved uncontaminated by sin, 
unclouded by error, until the Deluge. Soon after 
that event an incident occurred, recorded in Gen. 



16 The Science of History 

ix. 20-27, showing that this great fountain of truth 
was no longer unpolluted — there was a spot even 
upon this sun of righteousness. A singular weak- 
ness has impelled some to defend the second father 
of mankind from all blame in this matter; but 
[N'oah and all other men are made to stand as sin- 
ners before God by revealed truth. None that has 
ever worn the form of humanity — except Jesus — is 
spotless. If Noah then was a sinner saved b}^ grace, 
how does it degrade his name to admit that his par- 
ticular sin was drunkenness, indulged in but once in 
his life? It is the only rational explanation of the 
advent of sin and error into Noah's race. This 
event occurred, we believe, about 2331 B.C., and, 
as a consequence, spiritual darkness began to over- 
spread the race. In the progress of Christianit}^, 
durino^ the srreat relio-io-political convulsion of En- 
glish History — A. D. 1648-88 — one luminous princi- 
ple dawned on the world — that of Toleration. It 
exhibited itself in practical application first in the 
American colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and the Carolinas. It was feeble at lirst, 
but it has spread rapidly over the world, and is now 
filling the earth with light and joy. The history 
of "Anathema" from Noah to William III. would 
show a dark four thousand years of Human History, 
but according to the promise "at eventide" in the 
world's progress "there is light" again. The great 
principle here fought for and realized at last is, that 
no man, however eminent, has a right to hurl divine 
curses upon his fellow-man, wdiether he is in error 
or not. "To his own master he standeth or fall- 



On an Evangelical Basis. 17 

eth;" therefore we, his, fellow-servants, are not to 
curse, but entreat, the erring. 

VII. The great archaeological discoveries of this 
century bear directly upon these cycles of History. 
Of the original foundations and careers of the first 
o-reat monarchies of the world we have known little, 
except from Scripture and wild legends, till the de- 
cipltering of hieroglyphics and excavations in the 
East in recent years. We hold that these king- 
doms, founded about 2200 B.C., with the contami- 
nation of sin which infected more or less the whole 
race even at that early day, fell, and their memo- 
rials perished with them, because of their unre- 
pented sin. Hence, the cause of their decay was 
coeval with their institution, and the impenetrable 
cloud of darkness which so long hid the demoraliz- 
ino; details of their sins from human kind was an 
appropriate and necessary punishment for their 
flagrant departure from the pure principles of the 
earlier age. After a dreary interval of four thou- 
sand years the eye of the world is again providen- 
tially turned upon them, to read the inevitable 
consequences of national sin, and to find in the 
resurrected cities of the East new proofs of the di- 
vinity of the gospel of the resurrection, now so 
fiercely assailed by sin. Hence we see that, after a 
full spiritual cycle of four thousand years, the very 
nations that first led the world astray from true re- 
ligion are compelled by Providence to throw light 
and confirmation upon its importance and history, 
and thus help forward the work they once retarded. 
YIII. Philological investigation unites with, and 
2 



18 The Science of History 

goes hand in hand with, archix^ological research. 
Confusion of human speech is expressly decLared 
to have been a direct punishment and preventive 
of sin. The divisive tendencies of diverse lan- 
guages have exerted an immense influence upon the 
whole subsequent history of mankind ; but in the 
present century the study of Philology has been 
developed to such an extent that the languages of 
almost the whole world have been analyzed, classi- 
fied into groups, and studied with scientific order; 
so that man has attained a power over human 
speech never before possessed; and as sin at first 
gave rise to the confusion of languages, the evan- 
gelical work of missionaries in translating the Bible 
into foreign tongues has been the first motive and 
chief factor in this great achievement of advancing 
civilization. The almost universal translation of 
the Bible is the best illustration of the progress of 
the world in conquering the barriers of diverse 
speech. Four thousand years ago sin was retarded 
in its conquest of the world by the confusion of 
speech ; but as sin finally overleaped the obstruction, 
so grace is overcoming it now. 

IX. The development of the mechanical and sci- 
entific arts is also illustrative of this cycle. Noah's 
immediate descendants Avere evidently in a high 
state of civilization in this respect. The structure 
of the immense ark and the building of the ambi- 
tious Tower of Babel — "whose top should reach to 
heaven" — prove the advancement of that genera- 
tion in material things. The vast edifices of ancient 
Babylon, Egypt, and Nineveh, testify to the same 



On an Evangelical Basis. 19 

truths. The decline in the sciences and arts was 
caused by political disorders, wars, conquests, etc. — 
indirect results of sin ; so we hold that the great 
revival of mechanical industries, arts, and sciences, 
in our time, is a return to, and an improvement 
npon, the old order of things, and is due indirectly 
to the religious elevation of the people who have 
produced them; for it is an indisputable fact that 
they have been most wonderfully developed in 
those countries most advanced in religious and po- 
litical progress. The decline in these things has 
lasted four thousand years from its first advent to 
the complete restoration in our day. 

X. Intemperance has been a great spiritual enemy 
of man. Its effect upon Noah gave rise to the first 
great schism in his family. It was intemperance 
that opened Pandora's box upon !N"oah's race when 
it ejected from him an injudicious anathema upon 
Canaan (for we hold that that utterance is given in 
Scripture as a fact, not as an inspiration). It has 
intensified every evil that befalls man, and stren- 
uously opposed every good to which he aspires. 
Many protests have gone up from anguished earth 
to merciful Heaven against it. The Xazarite law 
of Moses, the Rechabite vovv^ of the perpetual fam- 
ily, the Essene dogma, Mohammed's prohibition, 
and monkish asceticism, have successively proved 
vain ; but in modern times a movement has begun 
that promises success after four thousand years 
of failure. In > the seventeenth century A.D., the 
Quakers adjured intemperance by Church -vow; 
in the eighteenth century the Methodists arose, 



20 The Science of History 

Avith the same principles in practice ; in the nine- 
teenth century great organizations have arisen in 
the two foremost nations of Christendom to banish 
it b}^ law from the face of the earth. All evan- 
gelical Christians will soon be united and zealous 
in the contest, and when that is realized, success 
becomes only a question of short time. The insid- 
ious evil that undermined the glory of the patri- 
archal ago will be eradicated when Christianity is 
crowned with its glorious and predestined triumph 
over the world. 



On an Evangelical Basis. 



21 



CHAPTER III. 

IN the early part of Ecclesiastical History the same 
difficulties as in the spiritual cycles preclude the 
exactness of demonstration which is desirable; but 
all the meager materials at hand fall readily and 
naturally into line of proof, testifying unanimously 
the truth of the principle stated. 

I. We begin this line of historical study with a 
brief discussion of the incident mentioned in Gen. 
ix. 20-27— that of the breach between Noah and 
Ham. This has been already referred to as a spir- 
itual event. It is many-sided, and has also its eccle- 
siastical bearing and connections; and to these as- 
pects we now direct our attention. It w^as the first 
recorded appearance of evil in the family and patri- 
archate of Noah; it led to a train of consequents 
which finally broke down the old patriarchal system 
of ecclesiastical worship, as well as opened the pit 
whence clouds of spiritual darkness overspread the 
whole race. The date cannot be definitely fixed, 
and we assign it to 2331 B.C. as the most probable, 
for the narrative infers that it was the first occur- 
rence of importance after the Deluge, and happened 
at a time when the whole family was yet dwelling 
in one homestead, or in immediate proximity to one 
another. It is only in accordance with what we 
know of human nature to hold that, in consequence 
of this malediction, a schism more or less defined 



0!-7 



The Science of History 



took place in the family. Ham's children felt ag- 
grieved and degraded, while the descendants of 
Shem and Japheth were rendered corresponding- 
ly elated and overbearing by this act, which had 
mnch the effect of any indiscreet parental partiality. 
Any thing that has the semblance of partiality in a 
family never fails to prod ace jealousy and feuds. 
But as if God would seal up the incipient source of 
evil providentially, ISTimrod grows up in the next 
generation, from the despised and accursed branch, 
a man of vast personal prowess and individual re- 
sources. That he was a man of great usefulness to 
the infant race in subduing wild beasts is highly 
probable. Proper appreciation of his services might 
liave restored the impaired peace of the race ; but 
when have men ever shov»Mi themselves ready to 
utilize the providence which raises up great men 
from despised places or families? Jnlins Ciesar, 
l^apoleon Bonaparte, and Jesus, illustrate this sad 
truth. Nimrod's services were made use of, but the 
prejudice incited against his fomily by the maledic- 
tion could not be overcome. Gifted with mighty 
resources, with high contempt for the petty weak- 
ness of others, he became soured against his kind 
on account of their ungenerous treatment, and 
launched out on his reckless, ruinous career. Of 
course, we do not assert these as indubitable facts, 
for the details at this place are not at hand; but 
they are presented as the most rational explanation 
of those few facts that are given, and their reliabil- 
ity is to be strengthened by showing that this is 
the nniform course of History in subsequent times 



On an UoangcUcal Basis. 



9?. 



when tljG details become more abundant and avail- 
able. Thus Nimrod, instead of becoming the bond 
of restored harmony, became tlie stirrer up of new 
disorders that overturned every foundation of the 
patriarchal system. The progress of evil was baf- 
fled, retarded, by providential intervention in the 
dispersion of the race; but the cankering process 
went on until it reached its culmination about 1931 
B.C., wdien the lirst recorded instance of wide- 
spread conquest took place, Chedorlaomer being 
the leader. It is evident that at this time military 
government had entirely superseded patriarchal au- 
thority in the regions of the Euphrates, its chief seat 
after the Deluge. The exile of Terah and Abraham, 
most probably the last adherents of the patriarchal 
system at this same period, confirms the entire pros- 
tration of the post-diluvian patriarchate, just four 
hundred years after its first infringement by evil. 

II. At this juncture Abraham emerges from the 
silent history of Ur, and appears as the head of a 
]iew ecclesiastical cycle. There is scarcely a doubt 
tliat Abraham was a political exile, as well as a 
graciously-commissioned servant of God. Indeed, 
to consider him a political exile, the legal represent- 
ative of the old order of things, explains ichj he 
was the graciously-commissioned servant of God. 
lie was persecuted for righteousness' sake, hence 
God became his defender and guide. The two are 
not at all incompatible. Jesus was compelled — 
humanly speaking — to flee with Joseph to Egypt 
when a babe, yet that flight was directed and in- 
spired by angelic vision; and so the spiritual and 



24 The Science of History 

political were joint factors in the Saviour's life— 
why not also in that of Abraham ? The date usu- 
ally given for Abraham's call is 1921 B.C. ; but this 
is on the supposition that he came almost directly 
from Ur to Canaan. There is no violence done to 
the record to hold that his journey from Ur was 
about 1931, and that he remained at least ten years 
at Charan, as indeed the narrative seems to infer. 
That the providential mission of Abraham had di- 
rect reference to the political and ecclesiastical im- 
provement of Egypt, as w^ell as to the securing of 
Canaan to his own posterity, cannot be doubted by 
the candid student of Historj^ and Revelation. At 
his first arrival in Canaan a drought compelled him 
to visit Egypt immediately. Josephus, who had 
access to, and was well informed on, the ancient 
records of different nations, declares that Abraham 
instructed the priests and chief men of Egypt in 
many religious truths. The whole course of the 
succeeding providence indicates that it was the 
ruling design of this cycle to establish an ecclesias- 
tical alliance between the Abrahamic and Egyptian 
races; for when at first Abraham's visit was cut 
short by his moral cowardice, and its purpose tem- 
porarily foiled, about two centuries afterward, by a 
most singular intervention of Providence, Joseph, 
the most virtuous of the great-grandchildren of 
Abraham, became the political saviour and priest- 
ly counselor of Egypt, and continued in ofhce for 
more than half a century, "teaching his senators 
wisdom, and binding his ]3i'iiices at his pleasure." 
lie introduced radical changes in the land-tenure 



On an Edangellcal Basis. 25 

g3'steni of the kingdom, and aolidified its political 
power thereby; and it is impossible to suppose that 
so 2food and so wise a man could have continued so 
long in power without making his influence felt in 
modifying idolatry, and counteracting heresy there. 
Besides his personal influence, the whole Jacobite 
family was reintroduced into Egypt under the most 
auspicious circumstances, and thus tlie way was 
reopened and widened for leavening the whole 
kingdom with true religion. And even when the 
reaction against this foreign influence was success- 
ful, the cruel persecutions of the succeeding Pha- 
raohs were not permitted to defeat entirel}^ this 
great design of Providence ; for again, two hun- 
dred years after Joseph, Moses was raised up by an 
amazins^ divine intervention, and became sinoruhirlv 
fitted, as the adopted heir to the throne, "learned 
in the wisdom of Egypt," as well as by Hebrew 
blood and nurture, to achieve the final accord of the 
two races to their mutual advantage in political and 
ecclesiastical affairs. Josephus asserts that this 
providence was even more marked by Moses becom- 
ing a great military leader of Egyptian armies at an 
early age, bringing the whole nation under deep 
gratitude to him. Indeed, every thing about his 
early history marks him out as the one man who 
might reconcile the Abrahamic and Egyptian races, 
and lead them both out into a clearer light of ac- 
(piired and revealed truth. But it all became of no 
avail when the inveterate prejudices of the Egyp- 
tians and the servile ingratitude of his own people 
caused him to flee as an exile to Midian, 1531 B.C. 



26 The Science of History 

We have claimed that Abraham left iTr 1931 B.C. 
as ail exile, with a providential destiny and mission 
to Egypt; now, just four hundred years afterv/ard, 
Moses goes into exile from Egypt, having failed to 
fulfill the Abrahamic mission there. That flight 
is the starting-point of a new era of Ecclesiastical 
History. As a lonely exile in Midian, a sorrowful 
stranger in a strange land, yet with the paternal 
counsels and domestic sympathy of Jethro, Moses 
received that additional personal discipline and 
training that made him. tlie " meekest man on 
earth," qualifying him for becoming the deliverer 
and lawgiver of the chosen people of God. And 
in these hard lessons of adversity, teaching and 
preparing him for his great future work, Moses w^as 
only repeating in person the experience of Abraham 
through a similar period four hundred years before. 
It is a coincidence not to be overlooked, that a 
bondage of four hundred years for his descendants 
W'as foretold to Abraham in Gen. xv. 13. Was this 
intended to give a key to solve the mysteries of 
similar fluctuations in the subsequent cycles of Ec- 
clesiastical History ? 

III. It is needless to dilate upon this new cycle 
more than just to refer to its several stages. First, 
its forty years of preparation, followed by the glori- 
ous exodus; then its forty years' schooling in the 
wilderness, followed in turn by the triumphant pas- 
sao^e into Canaan; then a2:ain its victorious wars, 
and sad disasters, till Othniel vindicated their power 
of permanent possession in the fortieth year; after- 
ward the ceaseless story of foreign invasion and do- 



On an JEmnr/cUccd Basis. 27 

tnestic iiisilrrection shows that the nation who sol- 
emnly vowed to have the Lord for their lung were 
becomino; more and more profoundly insensible to 
their high vocation and ecclesiastieal duties. The 
cycle closes in seemingly impenetrable clouds of 
despair, when, provoked by the iniquity even of the 
priests around His altar, the hand of Providence 
delivers the choice outward testimony of Moses's 
administration — the sacred ark — to the power of 
Israel's enemies, and " Ichabod "—a cry of mingled 
contrition and despair—goes up from the home of 
the faithless successor of Aaron. This event oc- 
curred, as correctly as we can make it, 1181 B.C. 

IV. But this awful calamity, under the hand of 
Providence, was made to AVork its own cure, as far 
as it could be cured. The ark had come hitherto to 
be idolatrously esteemed, as possessing divine virtue 
irrespective of the rectitude of its attendants; as 
the palladium of public safety, its presence in a 
camp even of sinners would insure them victory. 
Its captivity dissipated this materialistic error, and 
made a profound impression upon the people. The 
necessity of public I'eformation was felt by all. 
Samuel had been providentially prepared and placed 
in a position to turn this impression to good account. 
He introduced a more systematic form of Judicial 
administration, as is evidenced by his yearly circuit 
of the whole land. Tveducing chaos to order, he 
caused the light of hope to arise upon the darkness 
of national despair. Later he broke the bondage 
of Philistine oppression, and laid wisely the foun- 
dations upon which Saul, David, and Solomon, after- 



28 The Science of History 

ward built. Without the preliminarj work of 
Samuel the glory of Solomon's reign would never 
have risen on Israel— just as the exile of Moses was 
a necessary precursor to the conquest of Canaan by 
Joshua. Thus again, as it had been with Abraham 
and Moses, a period of disaster, danger, and sorrow, 
became the starting-point and inspiration of a new 
era in Ecclesiastical History. 

Samuel seems to have intended to establish some 
sort of hereditary government in his own family, 
which, though not a kingdom in name, would have 
given the nation all the benefits of established order 
and settled succession. This mild monarchy, a 
modified form of the old theocrac}^, was thwarted, 
probably by the jealousy of the tribal chiefs. The 
aristocracy of that day, as of all others, would ac- 
cept political redemption from a humble family 
like Samuel's, but could not endure its permanent 
aggrandizement by the possession of hereditary 
chief power in the land. "With factious complaints 
against his sons, they demand a king 'Mike the 
nations" around them. In 1491 they had prom- 
ised Moses that the Lord should be their King; in 
1095 they demand a change. The royal era which 
thus grew out of Samuel's reformation maintained 
national independence under Saul, extended its 
sway over neighboring tribes under David', and 
reached its culminating glory under the grand mon- 
archy of Solomon. Then came rebellion, secession, 
civil wars, wide-spread idolatry, desolating droughts, 
and foreign invasion — an unending series of afilic- 
tions, showing the rebuke of Providence for the 



On an Uo angelical Basis. 29 

multiplying wickedness of the people under the 
leadership of the kings. The final eclipse began 
when Hoshea, the murderer, ascended the throne of 
Israel, 730 B.C. Soon after Samaria was taken, 
and Israel carried into captivity, while the prophetic 
voice of Isaiah denounced the same fate as speedily 
to overtake Judah. 

. V. When Samuel had been ejected from the su- 
preme political power he seems to have given his 
chief attention, doubtless by inspiration, to devel- 
oping the schools of the prophets. These pious 
counselors, raised up at irregular intervals as the 
judges in the preceding cycle, were the constant 
guide, prop, and safeguard of the throne through- 
out the royal cycle; and when now the royal power 
began to fail, it loomed up on the stormy horizon 
as if to battle with the elements of fate in their 
own appointed dominion. In this time of thick- 
enino- dangers and terrible diasters Isaiah stands 
forth preeminent in the sublimity of his faith, ma- 
jestic in the conscious alliance with a spiritual power 
that rides upon the storm, and holds the waters in 
the hollow of His hand. It was he that assured 
the anxious Ahaz of safety when "Ephraim and 
Syria were confederate against Judah." It was he 
that pronounced doom upon Sennacherib's splendid 
host when it was yet flushed with victory. 

Isaiah's life, character, and prophecy, became a 

new inspiration to the nation that was expiring, 
poisoned by the eifluvia of its own corruption. He 

looked through the gloom of two hundred years, 

and held up to the faith of his countrymen Cyrus, 



30 The Science of History 

the Gentile savionr of the nation. His spirit per- 
petuated itself in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, 
Mordecai, ITehemiah,.and others, who successfully 
carried the truth and practice of righteousness 
through all the temptations and terrors of captivi- 
ty, and returned with it at last to be reestablished 
in its ancient chosen place at Jerusalem. Thus, 
through the efficiency of the prophets, the captivity 
was overruled by Providence to spread the knowl- 
edge of revelation to vast regions wdiere it had been 
hitherto wholly unknown. 

The captivity of the Jews to Asiatic nations, be- 
ginning thus about 730 B.C., continued, with slight 
changes and modifications, till the conquest of Per- 
sia by Alexander, four hundred years afterward, 
when it was transferred to European nations. The 
great design of this era is generally conceded to 
have been to cleanse Israel from idolatry, and it is 
certain that after this time they were effectually 
cured of this evil; but for another reason it may 
well be believed that one important end to be sub- 
served was the carrying of revelation to Eastern 
nations. Asiatics are naturally credulous, and 
prophecy was the best form of carrying to them the 
knowledge of the truth, because it suited precisely 
their spiritual predilections. 

VI. But when the captivity was transferred to 
European nations, at the conquest of Persia by Al- 
exander, 330 B.C., we see at once that Providence 
has brought out new developments of spiritual 
power in His chosen people, to lit them for success- 
fully bearing testimony to Greece and Rome also. 



Oil an JEc angelical JBasis. 31 

These are a literary people, given to pliilosopliical 
discussions; hence, under Simon the Just, schools 
begin to arise in Judea, and tlie literary powers of 
the chosen people were developed by a close, sys- 
tematic study of revealed truth, and exercised by the 
subtle debates of Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes, 
while their social and political systems were brought 
more effectively under the law, thus qualifying them 
to bear li^-ht to the cultured and free nations of 

o 

Europe. 

YII. The cycle of European captivity reached 
its linal crisis in the great Jewish rebellion against 
Kome A.D. 66-70, four hundred years after Alex- 
ander's conquest. It issued in the crushing out of 
the Hebrew nationality, and the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, with its gorgeous ceremonial worship and te- 
dious masses of traditionary precepts. But the good 
hand of Providence had anticipated and foretold 
this evil. Forty years befn-e ample provision was 
made for the impending catastrophe in the gospel 
of Jesus, and by means of the gospel the true ec- 
clesiastical life of the Israelite nation was reformed 
and readjusted to the exigencies of a new cycle that 
was about to dawn on the world — the apostolic age 
in Ecclesiastical History. Christianity unfolded its 
true principles but slowly at first, even to its di- 
vinely-instructed heralds. It was exceedingly diffi- 
cult for these men to shake ofi' the exclusivism of 
their times and their nation, and put the gospel 
upon the broad platform of international equality, 
which its genius imperatively demanded. The con- 
secrated genius of Paul, sustained by a life-time of 



32 The Science of History 

unparalleled labors, was necessary to put Christian- 
ity upon its true historical basis. The great task was 
just accomplished, and greatly aided by the fall of 
Jerusalem and the abolition of its temple service. 
After this Christianity, like an infant Hercules, 
enveloped by the serpent of heathen superstition 
and immorality, was engaged hand to hand in mor- 
tal conflict with all the powers of Gentile darkness. 
In this long conflict Christianity triumphed, but not 
decisively. When it gained imperial patronage and 
adherence from Constantine, so great was the antag- 
onism of paganism still that it, with other circum- 
stances, led to the establishment of Constantinople 
as a second capital of the Empire. In the subse- 
quent centuries, therefore, Constantinople is the 
exponent of the victorious gospel, and Rome of 
pagan obstinacy in rejecting Christ. 

YIIL With this distinction in mind, the contrast 
between A.D. 70 and A.B. 470 is vividly illustra- 
tive of the retributive providence concerning eccle- 
siastical afi*airs. In A.D. 66-70 heathen Rome was 
trampling under foot remorselessly the holy city 
Jerusalem ; in A.D. 466-70 Rome, herself down- 
trodden by repeated invasions of Gothic and Vandal 
hordes, through a barbarian chieftain, was humbly 
supplicating help, military aid, from the Christian 
city Constantinople, to sustain her fast-departing 
national life. The help was given, but it did not 
avail, and in a very few years the Empire of the 
West expired. This introduced what might be 
called the Gothic, monkish, or controversial era in 
Ecclesiastical History. 



On an Evangelical Basis. 33 

IX. We hold that the humiliation and extinction 
of the Western Empire was a providential retribution 
upon Rome for the savage destruction visited upon 
Jerusalem four hundred years before, and therefore 
fitly illustrates the ecclesiastical cycle. It maybe 
said in opposition that Jesus foretold this destruc- 
tion, and consequentl}^ approved it. This is a non 
seguitur. Every thing that is given in an inspired 
history is not given with divine approval, and 
prophec}^ in one aspect is only history miraculously 
written in advance of the fact. Besides, when God 
appoints a nation to do a particular act of provi- 
dence, they may render themselves as obnoxious by 
their cruel manner of doing as those were who were 
to be punished. " I was angrj^ but a little, but they 
helped it forward" — i. e., outran the due measure of 
correction. 

In the fifth century Home was largely Christian- 
ized, but its ruling powers were very much under 
pagan influence. Even the Christian Church at 
Rome was deeply under the influence of the pa- 
gan spirit of jealousy toward Constantinople. This 
jealousy had its origin in the pagan obstinacy 
against the Christian policy of Constantine, and 
when paganism waned, it inoculated its corrupt 
spirit into the Roman Church, and this is the vital 
germ of all of Rome's corruptions. 

X. During the long interregnum of the Western 
Empire the Church of Rome became more and 
more prominent locally and internationally. For 
more than two hundred years it availed itself of 
every opportunity to weaken the Eastern Church, or 

3 



34 The Science of History 

veto the imperial policy in Church affairs. After- 
ward, in the celebrated controversy on image-wor- 
ship, it boldly broke away altogether from subjec- 
tion to Constantinople, and after one hundred and 
seventy-five years was a chief agent in reestablish- 
ing the Empire of the West, A.D. 800. This added 
greatly to its influence, which was still further in- 
creased by the skillful use it made of the disorders 
which prevailed among Charlemagne's successors. 
This restoration of Roman influence upon the world 
is seen in that under its encouragement the image- 
worship was finally forced upon the Greeks, A.D. 
842, and the Greek Emperor obliged to depose 
Photius and restore Ignatius to the patriarchate of 
Constantinople, A.D. 868. This was just four hun- 
dred years after the beginning of the extreme de- 
pression of Roman prestige, A.D. 466-70. Rome's 
political power fell about A.D. 466-70; its ecclesi- 
astical power began to triumph over both East and 
West about A.D. 866-70. 

XL The Roman ecclesiastical power, however, 
was not fastened upon the world without great 
opposition and fluctuating stages, in a conflict of 
centuries' duration. The instances just above men- 
tioned were rather prophetic of what would be in 
the future than illustrative of the ordinary state of 
afifairs at that time. The German Empire arose to 
combat the claims of the Papacy, but by its monop- 
oly of education, its army of monks, its power over 
the superstitions of the age, and its use of the cru- 
sading enthusiasm, the Papacy triumphed, and 
reached its full development in A.D. 1268-72. At 



On an Evangelical Basis. 35 

that time, in the death of Conrad, the ancient en- 
emy of the popes (Hohenstaufen family) became 
extinct. The Pope was courted by the Eastern 
Empire, but newly restored to his throne. His 
dominion was almost world-wide and absolute. 

XII. But at the very moment of triumph the 
process of decay showed itself. The death of King 
Louis of France, in A.D. 1270, quenched the cru- 
sading craze that had been so helpful to the Sicilian 
vespers in 1282; and the long war that followed 
showed that, under favorable circumstances, the 
will of the Pope might be baffled. The quarrel 
of Philip of France with Boniface, in A.D. 1301-5, 
showed Europe how to assert her freedom; and 
the successful resistance of Louis of Bavaria com- 
pletely disrobed the Pope of his wonderful prestige 
for a time. But so well-organized a system, having 
so deep a hold on society, education, and theology, 
could not be shaken off" in one or two generations; 
once commenced, however, there could be no rest: 
the reforming spirit took various forms in succeed- 
ing generations, and was met by alternating in- 
trigue, concession, persecution, and war. The last 
religious war, made upon distinctly avowed relig- 
ious papal principles, was that of Louis XIV., in 
1672, when he required the Dutch to receive the 
Catholic religion as a preliminary of peace. Wars 
have since been made in the interest, and by the 
instigation, of Rome, but no nation has since avowed 
its subjection to Rome while warring for it. 

XIII. From another line of study the four-hun- 
dred-years' periods may be clearly traced in Church- 



36 The Science of History 

history. At a very early period a jealousy existed 
between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople, 
the old and new capitals respectively of the Roman 
Empire. This slumbering lire of enmity sprang up 
with more than former violence in a contest be- 
tween Pope Martin I. and Emperor Constantine in 
A.D. 649-53. The Pope was arrested, exiled, and 
died of his sufferings, it is said. This prompt action 
of the Emperor appeared to succeed at first, but it 
only intensified the former animosities; for in A.D. 
692, at the Trullan Council, the two Churches were 
again in opposition, and soon after the image-wor- 
ship contest separated them very bitterly. For 
several centuries these difterences continued with 
fluctuating but generally increasing violence, until 
they reached a second great crisis at the solemn ex- 
communication of the Greeksby the Romans in A.D. 
1054, four hundred years after the former period. 

XIV. The political exigencies of the following 
centuries and a superficial regard for Christian 
principles also gave rise to frequent and urgent 
efi:brts to heal these divisions, but always without 
success. 

XV. At last a third great crisis in this sad history 
occurred A.D. 1453, when Constantinople was cap- 
tured by the Turks, as the Greeks assert, and as 
reason corroborates, because Roman Catholics with- 
held aid from the struggling Greeks on account of 
their refusal to abandon their ecclesiastical dogmas 
in favor of Romish ones. In consequence, the 
Greek Church has been dreadfully downtrodden for 
four hundred years. 



On an Evangelical Basis, 8T 

XVI. But at last, in the good providence of God, 
a fourth great crisis came in A.D. 1853, when the 
mighty armies of Russia were marshaled for the re- 
ligfous amelioration of their suffering fellow-Chris- 
tians. And let every Western Christian blush to 
read it— Protestant England and Papal France dared 
to forbid and oppose it. The hand of Providence is 
there, and it is predestined to succeed. Imperial 
France has already been crushed in her inflated mil- 
itary pride, and Protestant England, under Glad- 
stone's lead, is learning nobler principles than to 
oppress Eastern Christians for the benefit of Mo- 
hammed's brutal followers. 

XVII. And again, from a difi*erent stand-point, 
the same rule appears. The first intervention of 
the Romans in Jewish government was by Pompey, 
in 63 B.C. The quarrel w^hich gave rise to this 
action runs back to Queen Alexandra's reign, 78 
B.C. Four hundred years after this Christianity, 
the historical heir of Judaism, gained its first open 
victory over the Roman Empire, in the conversion 
of Constantine, in A.D. 323. At the beginning of 
this cycle we see the military power of Rome tri- 
umphing over the moral and religious kingdom of 
Judah ; at its close is to be seen in turn the triumph 
of this religious power over the decayed military 
prowess of its conqueror. 

XVIII. The pagan opposition to Constantine was 
so great that he built a new city— Constantinople— 
for'his residence and capital. This was the germ 
of a divided empire and a divided Church ; it there- 
fore marks a great era in both. The jealousy be- 



38 The Science of History 

tween the cities and patriarchates gave immense 
trouble in the following centuries. 

XIX. At last, during the image-worship contest, 
in 726-30, Rome and the "West were severed com- 
pletely in politics and Church government from the 
East, four hundred years after the building of Con- 
stantinople, which became the occasion of division. 
Rome rebelling against the Empqror, its rightful 
governor, in A.D. 726, was indorsed by the West- 
ern Powers, the French particularly. 

XX. But in A.D. 1122 Rome assumed an equally 
independent attitude toward the German (successor 
to the French) Emperor, and finally triumphed 
over all the political powers of the West. Nothing 
stopped her career, though many efforts were made, 
till 1520-30, when Martin Luther led the people 
against her. 

XXI. From that day the power of Rome has 
waned, and every indication emphasizes the proba- 
bility that when the next crisis comes, in A.D. 1920, 
she, as it was in 1520, will have ceased forever as a 
stirrer up of strife and rebellion, and become en- 
tirely reorganized. 

The movement of Rome could not have succeed- 
ed but by the help and indorsement of Pepin and 
Charlemagne. They were aiders and abettors of 
the Avrong, and in 1120 their successors were right- 
fully the victims of the same high claims on the 
part of Rome. In 726 and 1120 the popes claimed 
to be acting in the religious interest of the people 
against their false rulers. In 1520 Luther turned 
this principle against the Pope, for he championed 



On cm Evangelical Basis. 39 

the cause of the people against the false rulers of the 
Church. Truly it was a retribution against Kome. 
But this law is as evident in International as in 
Ecclesiastical History. 

XXII. The ancient Persian Empire was devel- 
oped into an international one (that is, one involv- 
ing many nations in its history) with the reign of 
Cyrus, 570-30 B.C. After existing for two hundred 
years, this empire was overturned by Alexander; 
and while great changes occurred in many respects, 
by the infusing of the Grecian blood and spirit in 
the East, the identity of the old structure was not 
destroyed. It was not till 170 B.C. that there was 
any attempt, for instance, to introduce Grecian 
idolatry; but just four hundred years after Cyrus, 
arising from the same portion of Asia, came the 
Parthian, a totally different kingdom. 

XXIII. The independence of Parthia was first 
asserted as a province about 250 B.C., but it was 
not secured so early, and it did not become an in- 
ternational kingdom till about 170-40 B.C. For 
four hundred years the Parthian State was the rival 
of Rome — the Colossus of the East. 

XXIV. But about A.D. 226-60 the second Per- 
sian Kingdom arose, subverted the Parthian, spread 
over the East, and became the energetic antagonist 
of Rome. 

XXV. It held its sway till Mohammedanism 
arose, in 628-51, completely destroyed it, gathering 
up all the fragments, and reorganizing them for 
herself. The Persian Kingdom had lived just four 
hundred years. 



40 The Science of History 

XXVI. The interior structure of the Moham- 
medan Empire underwent a radical change when 
Togrul Bey led the Seljukian Turks into Persia and 
Syria. This was in 1028-55, four hundred years 
after the first appearance of the Caliphate. Xow 
that ancient name yielded up its military and polit- 
ical prerogatives, and was supplanted by the Sul- 
tanate. 

XXVII. Again the face of Mohammedan His- 
tory underwent a grand change from the policj^ of 
Amarath I. and Mohammed IL, in A.D. 1440-81, 
four hundred years after Togrul Bey. 

XXVIII. Still again, in the present century, an- 
other four hundred years having elapsed, the Mo- 
hammedan power is declining, as it arose. In 1840 
united Europe had to defend the Sultan from his 
own subordinates; in 1853 Europe was again called 
upon to defend him from Russia; in 1869-73 Egypt 
was practically freed ; in 1877-81 the larger portion 
of his European dominion was torn from him. 
Thus, in an unbroken succession of six cycles, the 
law is seen to prevail in Oriental History. 

XXIX. In English History, in its international 
relations, we may observe this law: A great revolu- 
tion took place in English History in the seventh 
century. It was the introduction of Christianity 
from abroad, hence an international event. 

XXX. In the eleventh century another wave of 
foreign influence swept over England, and left its 
permanent mark^ — the Danish and Xorman ascend- 
ency under Sweyn and William I. 

XXXI. In the fifteenth century the French inva- 



On an Evangelical 13asis. 41 

sion of Henry V., and the civil war consequent 
upon its failure, was an international affair that 
changed the entire organization of government and 
the whole current of English History — paving the 
way for the elevation of the people which came aft- 
erward. 

XXXn. In the nineteenth century a revolution- 
ary system of popular reform is radically affecting 
the whole structure and scope of English society 
and politics; the influence of France and America 
on its origin and development is manifest, hence it 
is international in character. Thus there are four 
great crises of English International History follow- 
ing each other at regular periods of four hundred 
years. 

This law might be shown to be applicable to the 
history of every other great nation of the earth, but 
lack of space forbids farther detail at this point. 



42 The Science of History 



CHAPTEE lY. 

THE fortj-years' periods are easily detected and 
traced in almost every part of Humau History. 
We direct our attention lirst to their appearance in 
Sacred Historj^ where many instances occur, and 
are specially marked out by the inspired pen. 

I. The approaching Deluge was foretold one hun- 
dred and twenty years in advance of the fact. This 
is an exact multiple of forty years. But we allude 
to it here not to prove the principle, but to suggest 
that if we had fuller details of the political corrup- 
tions which preceded and provoked that catastro- 
phe, we could doubtless divide it into its separate 
subordinate cycles of forty years each — just as it 
will be shown to be practicable in other portions of 
History. Moses's very infancy was marked with 
political and providential significance. He was 
forty years old when he failed in the first great po- 
litical efibrt of his life, and became in consequence 
an exile in Midian. After another forty years his 
people were prepared to follow him, and he to lead 
them ; and his second political attempt was a glori- 
ous success in delivering them from political servi- 
tude to Egypt. Again, for forty years he ruled 
them in the desert, defeated, through their wicked- 
ness, in establishing them in Canaan. But at the 
close of this period Joshua led the hosts over Jordan 



On an Evangelical Basis. 43 

and into Canaan. The early history of Israel in 
Canaan is classified by the author of the Judges 
into forty or eighty-years' periods. There was forty 
years' rest under Othniel, eighty years' rest under 
Ehud, forty years' rest again under Deborah and 
Barak, then forty years more under Gideon. Then 
succeeded a number of short judgeships, aggregat- 
ing seventy-nine years ; or if we, as is allowable by 
the narrative, give one year to the disorder under 
Abimelech, exactly eighty years in broken adminis- 
trations result. This was followed again by forty 
years' subjection to the Philistines, which brings us 
to nearly forty years of Saul's reign. The reign of 
Saul was forty years, those of David and Solomon 
of equal length ; so that, from the birth of Moses, 
1571 B.C., to the accession of Rehoboam, 975 B.C. 
— six hundred years — there is an almost unbroken 
recurrence of the fort3^-years' periods in the political 
history of the chosen people. After this the same 
truth could be shown, but as its crises are not so 
well marked, it would involve too protracted a dis- 
cussion for this short treatise ; but at the close of 
the Sacred Histories the same truth reappears more 
discernibly in the forty years' interval, from the 
preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus, to the war 
which closed with the destruction of Jerusalem. 
These facts might seem simply curious wdien stud- 
ied in isolation from the same recurring principle 
among all other nations; but when we see the same 
principle in action during the most noted periods 
of all other nations, it is difficult to resist the 
conviction that Sacred History was purposely so 



44 The Science of History 

arranged to indicate the great law of Political His- 
tory to its students. 

11. The most illustrious generations of Grecian 
History and the golden age of the Romans will 
testify to this truth. From the battle of Marathon, 
490 B.C., to the conquest of Persia by Alexander, 
330 B.C., was one hundred and sixty years, and it 
naturally divides itself into four distinct periods of 
forty years each. These two events are the most 
important in Grecian History : one was the inspi- 
ration, the other the culmination, of Grecian mili- 
tary and political glory. The splendid achievement 
at Marathon awoke Greece to an insatiable ambi- 
tion for glory, as well as an undying devotion to 
liberty. That ambition rested not till it led Alexan- 
der's host to the jungles of India in their triumph- 
ant progress. Brilliant triumphs over the mighty 
host of Persians became the one object of national 
ambition. It sustained them against the fearful 
numbers of Xerxes, and scarcely less dangerous 
warfare of the more prudent Artaxerxes, until it 
compelled the latter to seek peace in 450 B.C., 
which was concluded, with ever}^ advantage to 
Greece, the next year. This closed the iirst forty 
years, with constantly increasing glory. 

But already the dangers of the future cast dark 
shadows on the political situation of Greece. Dur- 
ing this first period Athens had been elevated by. 
the military genius of Miltiades, Themistocles, and 
Cimon, far above the other States of Greece, and 
it was under her leadership that these great tri- 
umphs were obtained. Naturally she became proud 



On an Evangelical Basis. 45 

and overbearing toward the others; while Sparta 
could not conceal her envy of her more powerful 
sister, and became the rallying-point for all anti- 
Athenian malcontents. The two States had already 
come to blows before the peace with Persia, and it 
required all the prestige and wisdom of Cimon to 
rearrange harmony between them. In the hour of 
triumph that sage leader was swept away by sudden 
death, and no master-hand remained to guide the 
helm of State so as to secure internal concord for 
Greece. Athens and Sparta, improving the Persian 
peace, with mutual schemes of aggrandizement, soon 
reopened and developed increasing and deepening 
rivalries. The Peloponnesian war followed inevita- 
bly from this state of things. From the first Ath- 
ens was unsuccessful in the field; then later on she 
was fearfully ravaged with pestilence, losing Peri- 
cles by it; but the proud spirit of her great people 
bore up nobly. Then came the great disaster be- 
fore Syracuse, which, generously used by her adver- 
saries, might have opened the way for peace; but 
instead, they derived from it a new impulse to seek 
the complete destruction of Athens. Her allies 
were seduced or forced to desert her, and at last 
her enemies even negotiated a close alliance with 
the reprobated Persian. By this treaty they ob- 
tained the financial and military aid that finally 
enabled them to crush Athens; so that this treaty 
may be considered a real turning-point in the 
Peloponnesian war. It took place 410 B.C., forty 
years after the former treaty of Greece with Persia. 
Contrast now the relative position of Greece and 



46 The Science of History 

Persia in 450 and 410 B.C. At the first date vic- 
torious Athens, at the head of united Greece, was 
dictating a humiliating treaty to Persia ; at the sec- 
ond date diplomatic Persia was utilizing divided 
Greece to crush the power that had so humiliated 
her forty years before. One political cycle had 
completely reversed the status quo of the former. 
Sparta now stood in Athens's place at the head of 
Greece, and it seems a providential retribution upon 
her infamous treatment of the latter that the only 
disgraceful treaties the Greeks ever made with Per- 
sia was after she was in ascendency, while she was 
enjoying the ill-gotten fruit of her envy and treach- 
ery toward Athens. She did not, however, reap her 
reward fully until the close of the forty years fol- 
lowing her first alliance with Persia: 370 B.C. her 
military power and political prestige were both 
hopelessly broken on the field of Leuctra by the 
celebrated Epaminondas of Thebes. Sparta, now 
as craven-spirited in unexpected disaster as she had 
been ignoble in unmerited prosperity, meanly 
begged the aid of that Athens she had so deeply 
wronged forty years before. And such are the 
wonderful transformations of time that Athens 
granted the request, and once more became the 
ally of her betrayer. 

Thebes now became, in turn, the leading power 
of Greece, but the united opposition of Sparta and 
Athens thwarted her in a consolidation and en- 
largement of her power. The connection between 
this and the succeeding crisis may be readily seen, 
however, when we remember that about this time 



On an Evangelical Basis. 47 

Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander, was car- 
ried a hostage to Thebes. There he learned the 
art of war from Epaminondas, the greatest general 
of the age. So that the thirst and capacity for mil- 
itary glory in Philip and Alexander was kindled 
by the hero of Leuctra. Such was its potent influ- 
ence that, while the father in youth was only a host- 
age-prince in a strange city, the son became the 
far-famed conqueror of Persia just forty years after- 
ward. There is no mere ftmciful connection be- 
tween the victory of Leuctra 370 B.C. and the con- 
quest of Persia 330 B.C., for Alexander was the 
military heir of Epaminondas in only the third 
generation. He was the worthy son of a worthy 
sire in a military sense. 

III. The most tumultuous times of Koman His- 
tory show the marks of this law regulating their 
apparently disordered convulsions. The violent re- 
sistance of the Patricians to the popular reformations 
attempted by the Gracchi will serve to illustrate 
it. They extended from 132 to 120 B.C., and were 
marked by intervening fluctuations in 128 B.C., 
when the reaction against Tiberias Gracchus's policy 
was arrested by the suspicious d*eath of the younger 
Scipio; and again in 124 B.C., when Caius Gracchus 
took up the unfinished task of his brother. The 
whole movement failed, however, for it was opposed 
by slander, bribery, and violence. But it was a 
movement imperatively needed by the State, and 
embodied a principle of righteousness which could 
not fail if Rome was to survive. Hence, forty 
years afterward, the same issues were reopened — 



48 The Science of History 

this time by a Patrician — M. Drusus Livias, called 
the Patrician Gracchus. His assassination 91 B.C. 
led to the social war and enfranchisement of the 
Italians. This in turn led, in 88 B.C., to the out- 
break between Marius and Sylla. The popular par- 
ty was successful at first under Marius and Cinna; 
but in 84 B.C., when Sylla returned from the East, he 
reasserted the Patrician principles, and achieved a 
complete supremacy for them in 80 B.C. Here we 
see a series of political tumults from 92 to 80 B.C., 
with intervening fluctuations from 88 to 84 B.C., 
just as forty years before. Thus the Patricians were 
successful, but the people could not be kept down. 
Under the masterly leadership of Julius CfBsar the 
popular cause revived, and soon became again a for- 
midable power. Under the Triumvirate — Csesar, 
Pompey, and Crassus — it ruled the State. Crassus 
died 53 B.C., Pompey veered around to the Patri- 
cians in 52 B.C., and thus the incipient step of civil 
war was taken. In 48 B.C. the crisis of civil war 
came, when Pompey was signally defeated at Phar- 
salia. In 44 B.C. the Patrician cause again got foot- 
hold under Brutus and Cassius; but in 40 B.C. the 
popular party, represented by the second Trium- 
virate, was completely and permanently successful. 
Thus again, from 52 to 40 B.C., there were twelve 
years of tumults, civil wars, and proscriptions, just 
as there had been forty years before, from 92 to 80 
B.C. The whole tendency of Roman politics was 
now toward an imperial government, based on pop- 
ular rights, rather than an aristocracy, supported 
by Patrician franchises. Lepidus was partly forced, 



On an Ecangdical Basis. 49 

partly bribed, out of Augustus's patb, and after teu 
years the degenerate Antony was swept away by 
military power. But liberty was deeply rooted at 
Rome. Mere suspicion of an attempt to eradicate 
its revered principles had proved fatal to Julius 
Ca3sar when in the height of power and reputation; 
therefore Augustus moved very cautiously toward 
his object, and its full attainment again illustrates 
the forty-years' periods. He had already possessed 
himself of many chief offices of the Republic, and 
thus preserved the form, while he undermined the 
spirit, of the Republic. The process of consolida- 
tion was completed when, 12 B.C., he succeeded Le- 
pidus in the high-priesthood — an office which, in 
able hands, might have been an efficient obstacle to 
his success. In 8 B.C. he issued a decree of taxa- 
tion and census throughout the Empire; and the 
execution of this scheme of consolidation was co- 
incident with B.C. 0, as we learn from ]N"ew Testa- 
ment History. Thus the real consolidation of the 
Roman Empire took place 12 to B.C., correspond- 
ing with the political changes of forty years before. 

IV. When the Western Empire was sinking be- 
neath the inundations of barbarian hosts the same 
principle appears. In A.D. 410-11 one wave of in- 
vasion overflowed under Alaric; in 451 Attila was 
ravaging Italy and threatening to destroy Rome. 
The Vandals, under Genseric, conquered the im- 
portant province of Africa in A.D. 429; in A.D. 468 
the only serious attempt was made for its recovery, 
and failed. 

V. In Modern Ecclesiastical History, in its polit- 
4 



50 The Science of History 

ical connections, are several well-marked examples. 
A General Council at Pisa, in A.D. 1409, attempted 
to heal the long-continued schism of the West, and 
when, several years afterward, the immediate object 
was attained, the eftbrt was made to so reform the 
Church as to provide against the recurrence of sim- 
ilar evils in future. For this purpose the Council 
of Basle was summoned, and labored several years 
with great success; but being opposed by the skill- 
ful and obstinate Eugenius IV., and misled by their 
imprudent advisers, they lost public confidence, and 
their failure caused another schism under Felix V. ; 
but after several years the milder polic}^ of Nicholas 
v., and his high character, produced a reconcilia- 
tion ; so that the great movement to restore unity 
and reform the Church, commenced in 1409, came 
to an end A.D. 1449, with a united but unreformed 
Church. 

The Council of the Lateran, which authorized the 
sale of Indulgences to replenish the treasury of Leo 
X., adjourned in A.D. 1515. The too zealous exe- 
cution of this atrocious scheme by the impudent 
Tetzel, a year or two afterward, kindled the fire of 
reforming zeal in the heart of Luther and the peo- 
ple of Germany. The political controversy it raised 
was a tremendous one; it was long and fiercely con- 
tested, and with alternating fortune; but in A.D. 
1555 the Peace of Augsburg secured to the brave 
opponents of the great evil full religious protection 
and liberty. 

The seeds of the Reformation were early sown in 
France, but were sternly repressed by the cruelty of 



On an Evangelical Basis. 51 

Francis I. ; but in A.D. 1557-61 the French Protest- 
ants, encouraged by the recent success of the Ger- 
mans, by the accession of the Protestant Queen 
Elizabeth, and by the military disasters of their 
own king, making him temporarily unpopular, bold- 
ly avowed their principles, even in Paris itself, and 
by a judicious policy secured concessions from 
Catherine de Medici. This was the beginning of 
the Huguenots as a political party in France. The 
civil wars, intrigues, betrayals, and varying fort- 
unes which befell the cause afterward, cannot here 
be detailed; but in A.D. 1597-1601 they saw their 
chosen leader securely seated on the throne, a nom- 
inal Catholic now indeed, but a true friend and pro- 
tector of his old comrades, as was shown by the 
Edict of Nantes. In forty years they had risen from 
a despised rabble to become the dominant power 
in the kingdom. 

After the adjournment of the Council of Trent 
the policy of the popes was steadily and energetic- 
ally directed to the extermination of the Reforma- 
tion in Europe by force. But this required the 
political cooperation of the submissive States. Sev- 
eral years w^ere necessary before this could be inau- 
gurated. One of the first steps in this system was 
to introduce the Inquisition in the Netherlands, and 
by Spanish cooperation convert the people with 
fire and sword. This was bafiled at its commence- 
ment. The Dutch, under William I., rebelled about 
1568, and after forty years compelled Spain to agree 
to a truce in A.D. 1609, and forty years afterward 
to acknowledge their independence, A.D. 1647-9. 



52 The Science of History 

At the same time similar attempts were made in 
Scotland, England, and France. Everywhere the 
Pope failed. The papal Mary Qaeen of Scots was 
dethroned, Protestant Elizabeth was sustained. 
The Huguenot leader became Henry IV. of France, 
and Dutch independence was practically gained; 
while Spain, the great engine of papal warfare, was 
so exhausted b}^ her protracted and perverted efforts 
that she has never regained her ancient position in 
Europe. 

VI. The primary movements of the so-called thir- 
ty-years' war in Germany began in A.D. 1609, ten 
years before the actual outbreak of hostilities. At 
that time the rival societies, the Evangelical Union 
and the Catholic League, were organized, and be- 
came the nuclei and promoters of a belligerent spirit 
on either side ; so that from its first movements, in 
A.D. 1609, to its close, in A.D. 1649, it was more 
truly a forty-years' war than one of thirty years' 
duration. 

VII. The downfall and restoration of the Jesuits 
occupy a forty-years' cycle. The opposition to them 
among the Catholic powers of Europe was political 
in its character. It began in Portugal in 1759, de- 
veloped in France in 1762-^64, in Spain in 1767, and 
they were finally suppressed in 1773 by the Pope. 
The new Pope in 1774 indorsing the action, it be- 
came apparently permanent. France took the lead 
in this movement. But in 1799 the Duke of Par- 
ma openly authorized their reorganization, in 1801 
the Pope allowed their reorganization in Lithuania 
and White Russia, in 1804 they reappeared in Sic- 



On an Evangelical Basis. 53 

ily, and finally, Napoleon Laving been crushed at 
Leipzig in 1813, tbey were formally restored by the 
Pope in 1814. The great object of their restoration 
was to counteract the theories of political reforma- 
tion that had been propagated in the world by the 
French Revolution. The successive periods of its 
decline and of its restoration are separated by forty 

years. 

VIII. In English Political History the French 
invasion and the War of the Roses, in the fifteenth 
century, were both movements of forty years' dura- 
tion. Henry IV. sent his first detachment of sol- 
diers to aid the parties then at civil war in France 
in A.D. 1412. This opened the way for a more 
ambitious interference in the internal aflairs of tliat 
kingdom; and the enterprising Henry V., following 
in his father's steps, attempted to obtain the crown. 
He was prevented by death. Under the regency of 
Henry VI. the English were gradually driven back, 
and finally expelled from all France, except Calais, 
in A.D. 1453, forty years after their first unright- 
eous interference with that kingdom. 

Before this invasion reached its final stage of dis- 
graceful failure it had planted the seeds of another 
forty years of war and commotion; for the first 
cause of the War of the Roses was the intense mor- 
tification of the English nation at the disadvanta- 
geous truce made with France in 1445, when a 
strong-minded French Queen was imposed upon 
the imbecile Henry VI., at a loss too of extensive 
territories. The imprudent conduct of the Queen 

id her favorite in removing by violence the best 



an* 



54 The Science of Mistory 

and most popular leaders of the nation, in A.I), 
1447, alienated the affections of all. Then many 
trained soldiers returned in idleness to England, 
during the truce, to stir up additional trouble. 
The insurrection of Jack Cade, and impeachment 
of Suffolk, A.D. 1450, shows the progress of disaf- 
fection. This state of things encouraged the Duke 
of York, rightful claimant of the throne, to come 
forward as the advocate of popular rights. This 
melancholy story reached an end only when Henry 
VII. came into power in 1485, and by marriage with 
the female heir of the opposing line in 1487, closes 
the breach in the royal succession, beating down 
the last native insurrection in A.D. 1489. 

IX. The great revolutions under the House of 
Stuart, in the seventeenth centur3^, were culmina- 
tions of principles and forces that had been forty 
years at work. James I. early adopted the belief 
that the Episcopal form of Church polity was much 
more favorable to absolute monarchy than the Pres- 
byterian or Puritan ; it therefore became the cardi- 
nal point of his narrov/ and selfish policy to replace 
Presbytery with Episcopacy. His maxim was, "^o 
Bishop, no King." He began his active and perse- 
vering policy by persuading the General Assembly 
to acknowledge the civil rights of bishops, and he 
then restored the Scottish Episcopacy in 1610; ten 
years later he obtained great concessions to his Epis- 
copacy, thereby the five Articles of Perth. Charles 
I. pressed on in his father's tracks, and his High- 
Church dogmas and innovations stirred up the first 
fires of revolution in Scotland in A.D. 1637-40 — a 



On an Edanyelical Basis, 65 

flame that ceased not till it had consumed the mon- 
archy of England. To strengthen the monarchy 
James hegan his proselyting scheme in 1610; it 
reached its sad culmination in the establishment of 
the Commonwealth, A.D. 1649-50. The great mis- 
take made by the English leaders at this moment- 
ous epoch was the highly impolitic and cruel death 
of Charles I., A.D. 1649. It alienated Scotland, it 
disaffected the Presbyterian leaders, it enraged the 
original royalists, it was procured by high-handed 
military violence, and it had a very disastrous effect 
upon the expiring eftbrts of the Liberals of France 
during the Fronde. This last v/as a serious evil. 
The sentiment in Paris against this event was suffi- 
cient of itself to defeat this last efibrt to liberalize 
France; and upon the ruins of that attempt the 
absolute monarchy of Louis XIV. was built. Thus 
the personal government of the grand monarch was 
partly the result of French reaction against the 
high-handed course of Republicans in England. A 
Kepublic claiming to be specially representative of 
Christian principles, starting out with such a record, 
was predestined to failure. N"othing but the won- 
derful genius of Cromwell delayed the catastrophe 
for eleven vears. But the struo^scle of the same old 
principles went ceaselessly on under Charles II. 
and James II., until, just at a time when monarchy 
and High-Churchism seemed impregnably fortified, 
the Revolution of 1688 came on. The radical mis- 
take of the first revolutionists was made when they 
w^ere in the flush of success and power, in 1648-9. 
By it their triumphant party was gradually brought 



56 The Science of History 

low, until it appeared in turn hopelessly lost, when 
their powerful opponents made the same mistake 
they had been guilty of forty years before, and the 
Giishap brought William and Mary to the throne, 
.\.D. 1688-9, and restored liberty to England. 

X. The recent liberal movements in European 
politics exhibit the workings of this principle. The 
French Revolution of 1789-93 had an influence in 
all parts of Europe. It desolated the world with 
war for twenty years, then a great collapse seemed 
to come on ; but it was found impossible to restore 
the old order of politics. Even the States that 
overwhelmed France, at last had been compelled to 
adopt reformed methods, in order to rally the peo- 
ple to their aid; and after the Restoration, the same 
contest went on between freedom and tyranny, till 
1829, the Polignac Ministry of France, appointed 
by the reckless and incompetent Charles X., caused 
the commotions of 1830 to break out. France be- 
came once more free; Belgium revolted and asserted 
popular rights; reform swept the field in England; 
Italy and Poland were convulsed. The diflerence 
between 1789^93 and 1829-33 was, that the first in- 
augurated an era of war, and the second was so 
universally successful that it commanded the peace 
by innate power. 

Two facts will show the connections between 
these two crises. It was Charles X., then Duke 
d'Artois, that gave Louis XVI. the evil advice to 
dismiss N"ecker, which caused the popular outbreak 
that captured the Bastile and unchained the demon 
of mobocracy A.D. 1789. It was this same man, as 



On an Eijangelkal Basis. 57 

Charles X., who in 1829 appointed Polignac Prime 
Minister of France— an act which precipitated the 
revolutions of ISSQ. In May and June, 1792, 
Charles Gre}^ pressed a Reform Bill in the English 
Parliament, which aimed to apply some principles 
of the French Revolution to English politics ; it 
was defeated. In 1832, however. Earl Grey, the 
same individual, forced a more sweeping Reform 
Bill through Parliament. 

Again, the liberal movements which developed 
success in so many European countries in 1869-73, 
is another instance. At this latter date England 
was instituting reforms surpassing any thing known 
for forty years; Spain was proclaimed a Republic; 
France became again republican ; Italy was freed 
and liberalized; Germany was united, and its gov- 
ernment based on universal suffrage; Austria was 
remodeled, with a free constitution. 

XL The period extending from the autumn of 
1812 to that of 1815— that which broke down the 
empire of the first T^apoleon — is recognized by all as 
a great epoch in Modern History. England, Russia, 
and Austria, were the leading parties to that alli- 
ance against France. Forty years after this the 
third Napoleon was Just rising to imperial power, 
and the prestige of his dynasty was established by 
the success of the Crimean war, A..D. 1852-55, in 
which England and Austria were now allies of 
France against Russia, exactly reversing the polit- 
ical situation of the former cycle. The Crimean 
war was an epoch scarcely less important than the 
fall of the first Napoleon itself In A.D. 1796 Na- 



68 The Science 'of Mishry 

poleoti I. startled Europe and electrified France 
with his first brilliant exploits. The fame thus ac- 
quired opened his Vv^ay to chief executive power 
three years aftefward. His position at the head of 
national affairs was secured to him by the decisive 
victory of Marengo, A.D. 1800. Thus 1796 and 
1800 are strongly-marked periods in the develop^ 
ment of the Napoleonic dynasty^ Forty years after 
each of these years, historical incidents connected 
with the Bonaparte family show the complete con- 
trasts which one political cycle produces. In 1836 
Kapoleon III., then a private citizen, but heir to 
Kapoleon I., excited the laughter and ridicule of 
the world by his miserable fiasco of an attempt to 
seize Strasbourg, and thus raise a revolution in 
France. And not content with this exhibition of 
what the world called silly weakness, in 1840 he 
incurred contempt and indignation by a renewed 
efibrt on the coast of France opposite England, in 
consequence of which he was imprisoned for six 
years. But Napoleon I. lost his throne in spite of 
his early victories, and Napoleon III. regained the 
throne in spite of his early failures. The parallel- 
ism is heightened by the fact that they were nearly 
the same age at these respective dates, having been 
born nearly forty years apart. 

XII. Even in its brief career, the United States 
affords many illustrations of this political law. The 
Articles of Confederation agreed upon during the 
Revolutionary War were not fully ratified and put 
in practice till March, 1781. Daring the remainder 
of that year the executive departments were organ- 



On an Edangelicd Bads. 59 

i^ed by electing a Secretary of Finance, Secretary 
of State, and one of War ; a bank also was author- 
ized in December^ This was the lirst actual and 
permanent union of all the colonies in one duly^ 
organized, coherent government. After the war^ 
its weaknesses and errors were seen, and it was 
revised and changed in the present Constitution of 
the United States. Under the new form great par- 
ties grew up and struggled for mastery ; but nothing 
arose to endanger the continuance of the Constitu- 
tion itself till the Missouri Question came up^ which 
w^as finally settled by compromise, March, 1821, and 
the State actually received into the Union by proc- 
lamation in August of that year. 

The Missouri Compromise effectually settled the 
slavery question in its territorial relations for a time ; 
but its establishment of a sectional line was omi- 
nous. The controversies of succeeding years need 
not be described here* Suflice it to say, that in 
1860, as in 1820, the absorbing political issue was 
slavery in its territorial relations— precisely a rep- 
etition of the question whose determination was 
dodged by compromise forty years before. When 
Congress adjourned March, 1861, without achieving 
a satisfactory compromise, the country stood on the 
brink of civil war to decide what was the true 
meaning of the Constitution adopted in primitive 
form eighty years before, and to end a controversy 
started forty 3^ears before. 

XIIl. But going back to an older date, and fol- 
lowing up a different line of development, the law 
is still seen. The first attempt to unite the colo- 



60 The Science of History 

nies in one government was by the Convention at 
Albany, in A.D. 1754, which was inspired by the ap- 
proach of the old French war in A.D. 1753. The 
pilan then recommended by the delegates was object- 
ed to in England, as savoring too much of independ- 
ence, and in America, as giving too much power to 
the Crown. Four years afterward Pitt's able man- 
agement secured effective cooperation between the 
colonies, without a regular union. This first showed 
America the value of political unity. Ten years aft- 
erward, w4ien the Stamp Act passed, the colonies 
enthusiastically united for the single purpose of 
obtaining its repeah A Congress assembled, and 
it succeeded. Then came the Non - importation 
Leagues, and Committees of Correspondence bound 
the parts together for a time, and for a single pur-" 
2D0se. Afterward the Revolutionary War secured 
the ratification of a formal act of union ; and lastly, 
the necessity of a vigorous foreign policy to pre- 
serve the independence so hardly won, led to the 
perfecting of the present Constitution. Thus the 
centralizing tendencies were continually on the in- 
crease from 1753 to 1793, when it had triumphed 
over every obstacle. But then came a new era — 
one of reaction. The States-rights principles were 
coeval with the formation of the Constitution. Its 
adoption was earnestly contested in many States by 
large parties, who feared it would destroy the local 
powers of the States. AVhen the centralizing in- 
fluences seemed to be gaining ascendency in Wash- 
ington's first administration, the first national or- 
ganization of its opponents took place in the Dem- 



On an Eoangelical Basis. 61 

ocratic Clubs of 1798. The Whisky Insurrection 
of the next year showed also the current of public 
opinion ripening for rebellion in some quarters. 
Under Jefferson's able leadership this party obtained 
control of the Government in 1801, and immedi- 
ately proceeded to alter the policy of the adminis- 
tration so as to coincide with Democratic States- 
rights principles. But long possession of power 
will demoralize almost any party, and a man who 
has the military instinct powerfully developed is 
always unfit for President in a nicely-balanced con- 
stitutional system such as ours. These two things 
ran the Democratic party off the track of original 
States-rights, upon which it was placed by Jefferson. 
In 1833 the party, under the military spirit of Jack- 
son, having been demoralized by continued power 
for thirty-two years, attempted to inaugurate the 
policy of military coercion of one of the original 
States during the JSTullification crisis. The state 
of public opinion compelled a compromise instead 
of coercion ; but the germ of that policy was depos- 
ited by Jackson, in 1833, just forty years after the 
Democratic party had arisen upon a foundation 
of totally different principles. A¥hat Jackson de- 
signed to do in 1833, but was prevented by the 
constitutional conservatism of Congress, Grant 
ingrafted into American politics as an ordinary 
factor in 1873. The successive steps which led 
to this need not be detailed; it is sufficient to point 
to the fact that at no period of our history was 
military power made to bear upon the ordinary 
course of politics in time of peace more effectively, 



62 The Science of History 

more dangerously, than in 1873, forty years after 
Jackson's frustrated attempt at the same achieve- 
ment. 

XIY. Since 1773 the United States has waged 
three great wars, which taxed her resources, skill, 
and courage, to the utmost — viz., the Revolution, 
the second war with Eno-land, and the war of seces- 
sion. The Mexican War is not included here, be- 
cause it did not test the power of the country as 
the others did ; it was a holiday parade from victory 
to victory, compared with the others. Each of these 
wars developed a typical soldier from the ranks of 
the common people — Washington, Jackson, Grant ; 
each of these became President, and continued so 
for two terms ; each impressed his soldierly charac- 
ter, more or less, on the constitutional politics of 
the time, and inaugurated epochs in the executive 
history of the country. They followed each other 
at intervals of exactly forty years — viz., 1789, 1829, 
1869. In 1774 the Revolutionary War was just 
opening ; in 1814 the second war with England was 
just closing ; in 1854 the Kansas and Nebraska con- 
troversy was stirring up the passions of the people 
for the great civil war that resulted. 

XV. Our financial history may be cited here also. 
In 1791 the first national bank was chartered. Its 
successful inauguration and working gave great 
impetus to business in the succeeding years. In 
1832 a chief element in the political discussion was 
the rechartering of the second bank of the United 
States. Jackson's determined course defeated it. 
His removal of deposits, in October, 1833, and the 



On an Evangelical Basis. 63 

specie circular, in 1836, are believed by many to 
have been the direct cause of the great panic of 
1837, from which the country did not recover till 
1841-2, and which hurled the Democratic party 
from a forty-years' lease of power. Contrast with 
this the panic of 1873, forty years after the first 
movement under Jackson, which prepared that of 
1837, from which the country began to recover in 
1877-8, and had completely emerged only in 1881. 
XVI. Diplomatic History appends its testimony 
to the same effect. From 1753 to 1761 France and 
England were carrying on a great war for mastery 
in America, during which the former were expelled 
entirely. The English misusing their consolidated 
power, the Revolution was brought on, 1773-1781, 
during which France obtained through diplomacy 
the good-will and alliance of America against En- 
fi^land. And as^ain in the third s^reat stru£:o:le be- 
tween these nations, from 1793 to 1801, the alliance 
and influence of America was an object of chief 
attention. We w^ere nearly precipitated into war 
with England at the beginning, because she pre- 
sumed we were allies of France, and began to 
treat us as such — when this was with difficulty 
prevented b}^ Washington's tact and prudence. 
France, on the other hand, was enraged that we 
should remain at peace with England without her 
consent. War actually commenced between us, 
but was soon put an end to. Thus, the nations 
who went to war in 1753-61 to decide which should 
own America, found out at last (1793-1801) that 
America had made up her mind to belong to neither. 



64 The Seienee of History 

It took forty years to develop the fact. Again, in 
1834-6 our diplomatic relations were suddenly ren- 
dered critical with France in reference to American 
claims for compensation. England mediated, and 
peace was preserved ; and almost immediately after 
our relations with England were made sensitive by 
reason of the sympathy of many l^orthern people 
w^ith the rebellious Canadians ; and not till 1842 
had this danger passed away. So that, from 1833 
to 1841, we again had alternate troubles to settle 
wnth both our ancient co-negotiators. In 1805 the 
United States was involved in disputes with Spain 
with reference to South-western border affairs. This 
complication gave rise to Aaron Burr's famous Mex- 
ican enterprise, and led to his trial for treason. 
These events made a great figure in the politics of 
the time, and did not end till 1808. So forty years 
afterward — in 1845 — the United States was in- 
volved in disputes with Mexico — the historic suc- 
cessor of Spain — concerning our South-western bor- 
der. This complication brought on war, which 
ended in 1848. This latter crisis ended with a dis- 
integration of Mexican territory, in exact fulfillment 
of the alleged designs of Burr forty years before. 
Burr was tried for treason, and disgraced for life; 
while Taylor, the popular hero of the latter crisis, 
was promoted to the Presidency. 

The Monroe doctrine was first announced by the 
President in a message to Congress December, 1823, 
and, indorsed by the public sentiment of America, 
it at once became a cardinal principle of foreign 
policy with us. l^o serious attempt to overthrow it 



On an Evangelical Basis. 65 

was made till the French Emperor in 1863 obtained 
possession of the greater part of Mexico, and invited 
the Austrian Prince to establish his foreign empire 
on free American soil. The civil war in the United 
States encouraged and promised success to this dar- 
ing movement to subvert this principle which had 
been proclaimed and" submitted to for forty years. 
The collapse of the Confederacy was the resurrec- 
tion of .the Monroe doctrine. 

XVII. Even while this treatise is being written, 
the absorbing political event of our national affairs — 
the accession of Vice-president Arthur to the chief- 
magistracy — shows the predominance of cyclical 
crises. In 1801 the Vice-president's office suddenly 
and temporarily assumed preeminent importance, 
when the defeated Federalists in Congress hoped 
to put Burr, whom the people designed for Vice- 
president, into the Presidency. They failed ; but, 
whether failing or succeeding, they intended to sow 
dissensions between the leaders, and thus break up 
the Democratic party. Dissensions did result ; for 
Jefferson resented Burr's connivance in the iniqui- 
tous plot to defeat the popular will. But indigna- 
tion against intrigue, and Jefferson's amendment to 
the Constitution, preventing such trickery in fut- 
ure, strengthened the party more than Burr's defec- 
tion injured it. This amendment shows how im- 
portant this episode of Vice-presidential politics was 
considered at the time. Had it not been a most 
important crisis, no such fundamental law would 
have been sought to prevent it in future. In 1841, 
when the Democratic party fell before the Whigs — 
5 



6Q The Science of History 

successors of the Federalists — the whole policy of 
the Whig party was frustrated by the providential 
death of President Harrison, and the accession of 
Vice - loresident Tyler, who held entirely different 
views on the most important points of party policy. 
The opponents of Democracy had unjustly sought 
to defeat Democratic policy in its first triumph by 
elevating the Vice-president in opposition to the 
party will. When the opponents of Democracy at 
last triumphed over it before the people, their own 
policy was defeated by act of Providence in elevat- 
ing the Vice-iJresident in opposition to their party 
will. Does not this read like retribution ? It came 
exactly forty years after the first-mentioned event. 
When Tyler, having been known to hold independ- 
ent views, thus came in conflict with his party by 
joint act of their election and providential promo- 
tion, he was stigmatized and repudiated because he 
dared discharge his high duties according to his own 
judgment, and refused to be dictated to in matters 
where his opinions were known at the time of his 
election. Dissensions resulting went a great way 
toward destroying the Whig party in the hour of 
its first triumph. 

Forty years after Tyler, the Republican party — 
the historical successor of the Whigs — finds its 
chosen policy again reversed, prospectively, by the 
elevation of a Vice-president, representing one wing 
of the party, to supersede a deceased President, who 
represented the predominant part. The difference 
between Tyler and his party was in full blow Sept. 
13, 1841, when his Cabinet resigned. The change 



On an Evangelical Basis. 67 

from conservative to stalwart Republican came with 
Arthur's accession Sept. 20, 1881. The progress of 
liberalism in politics is seen, however, in the marked 
increase of deference toward Arthur's right of per- 
sonal judgment to retain and be guided b}^ his for- 
mer well-known principles in his new office. Yet, 
every practical statesman knows that there is immi- 
nent danger that the rock which was designed to 
wreck the Democratic party in 1801, and which did 
wreck the Whigs in 1841, may prove a fatal breaker 
to the Republican ship also in 1881. 

XViri. The history of religious sects, which has 
its political as well as its ecclesiastical bearings, 
shows the marks of forty-years' periods in their de- 
velopment. John Wesley, to whose personal work 
and character the history of Methodism ow^es its 
origin, was ordained deacon in 1725, thus fixing his 
choice on theology rather than literature. In 1729 
his peculiar genius and experience as a preacher 
first began to show themselves, when he organized 
what was derided as the "Holy Club," in the Uni- 
versity of Oxford. These are germinal dates in 
Methodist History. True to its nature, it began to 
grow, slowly at first, with constant acceleration after 
some years — finally with triumphant power. By 
1765-69 it had spread the leaven of zeal throughout 
the three kingdoms, and began its new cycle by 
depositing the germ of Methodism in America. 
About 1765 Philip Embury, Barbara Heck, and Rob- 
ert Strawbridge, were ready to start the work in 
JN'ew York and Maryland. In 1769 it had pro- 
gressed so well that Wesley took the work under his 



68 The Scieyiee of History 

personal care, and sent some experienced preachers 
to its aid, thus securing a strong and stable foun- 
dation to build on afterward. Methodism in Amer- 
ica flourished with wonderful rapidity — so much so 
that in forty years from its origin its old plans of 
government had to be thoroughly revised. This 
was the formation of the Delegated General Confer- 
ence, which was provided for in 1808, and accepted 
on all hands in 1809. Under this new plan — which 
was only adopted, however, under threat of disrup- 
tion — the work went on spreading as before. Sev- 
eral great controversies arose, and one or two small 
schisms occurred ; but nothing involving the fun- 
damental powers of the Constitution till 1844-48, 
when the disruption of the Northern and Southern 
sections occurred. The Delegated Conference was 
adopted only under pressure, a disruption being 
feared if it failed in 1808. The disruption was onl}^ 
delayed by its adoption, for it did come forty years 
afterward. In 1849 the opposing parties appealed 
to the secular courts to decide difi:erences of con- 
struing the Constitution adopted forty years before. 
Going back to English Methodism, 1769, witness 
the beginning of the great Arminian controversy. 
From 1729 this question had been shunned. The 
doctrinal combat was waged with great bitterness, 
and unquestionably did much to retard the growth 
of Methodism in England. The original unity be- 
tween these spiritual reformers was broken ; their 
mutual abuse and railing put them in a sorry plight 
before the irreligious world, and destroyed much of 
their former influence over the worldly. In 1810 a 



On an Evangelical Basis. 69 

separation occurred which gave rise to the Primi- 
tive Wesleyans, a strong and vigorous body. Their 
origin marks an era. And again in 1849 there was 
another considerable separation from the original 
body. These facts show that both in America and 
England the forty-years' periods prevail in Method- 
ist History. 

But two other instances may be mentioned. 
O'Kelly led a party in the American Methodist 
Church in 1790-92 who were clamorous for a more 
liberal form of Church government; it became a 
separate sect in 1792. In 1830 there was a similar 
separation by the Methodist Protestants on sub- 
stantially the same principles. And in 1870-72 
these liberal principles were adopted by the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, which had, when united, opposed 
them in 1830. Alex. Kilham led a liberal party 
in English Methodism in 1795. In 1835, forty years 
after, there was a similar schism in the "Wesley an 
body. 

XIX. The Scottish Church shows this. Presby- 
terians were securely predominant in Scotland not 
till 1668 - 72, when Mary, the Papal Queen, was 
driven into exile and a reformed regency sustained. 
It remained predominant almost without opposition 
till James L, in 1608-12, began his insidious attempt 
to reestablish Episcopacy. This was defeated by the 
first Revolution, and in turn Presbytery became 
predominant for awhile in England as well as Scot- 
land ; but in 1648-52 Independency suddenly sprung 
into power, and eclipsed Presbytery in England. 



70 The Science of History 

The Presbyterians became more favorable to the 
Stuarts, and attempted in vain to restore them. 
After some ^-ears they were restored, but with it the 
old policy of James I. was resumed. It came to a 
second defeat at the second Revolution, 1688-92, 
when Episcopacy was abolished and Presbytery re- 
established. But the long supremacy of Episcopacy 
under the later Stuarts had affected the tone of Pres- 
bytery; henceforth there was a hybrid element 
which depraved for many years the Scottish Church. 
This is shown by the restoration of the right of pat- 
ronage in 1712, and the high-handed course pursued 
against Erskine and his sturdy coadjutors. It cul- 
minated, in 1728-32, in bringing on the secession 
movement — a movement which, after more than a 
hundred years' labor, with many discouragements 
and fluctuations, has at last nearly effected a purifi- 
cation of the Scottish Establishment; for patronage 
was abolished in 1874, and disestablishment is a cer- 
tainty of the near future. 

The first Presbytery in the United States was or- 
ganized in 1705. In 1745 the body was divided into 
two rival and opposing Presbyteries. The division 
took place in 1741, but it was rendered complete by 
the organization of the Evangelical Presbytery of 
New York in 1745. They came together happily 
again in 1758, and in 1785 had prospered so greatly 
that they began to prepare for a more elaborate sys- 
tem of government, called for by their extensive 
body. So in 1788 the General Assembly was formed. 
1705, 1745, and 1785, are thus shown to have been 
epochal dates in its history. 



On an Evangelical Basis. "^^ 

XX. The tragic history of Poland adds its sor- 
rowful corroboration to the evidence of her happier 
sisters. Active foreign intervention in her aftairs 
took place in 1733, when Russia and Austria eject- 
ed Ledc.inski because of his French connections 
By that interference Augustus III. was secured to 
the throne. Forty years afterward these kingdoms, 
with Prussia, having seen how easily the Poles sub- 
mitted to foreign influence before, were encouraged 
To "roject the'iniquitous scheme of the partition 
Torn by dissensions, the Poles were overcome for a 
time ; but they watched aud waited for a favorable 
opportunity to'retrieve the past. They attempted 
H in 1T94, but failed. Again, when Napoleon mar- 
shaled his mighty hosts against R"^«'^';"J^^-' 
they were elated with hope; but when he meanly 
disappointed and betrayed them, the cause became 
almost hopeless. He was doubtless induced to fo - 
sake them by fear of offending Austria and Pruss a 
When these both openly declared against 1"^- ^nd 
he won the battle of Dresden, in August, 1813, in 
spite of the united arms, a momentary l^ope sprang 
np again. For what more probable than that, when 
he should conquer now, he would restore Poland o 
as to keep both these States in subjection ? When 
he was cr'ished at Leipzig, October, 1813, the cause 
ofPoland was lost. 1738, 1773, and 1813 were years 
of increasing sorrow and despair for Poland. 

XXI. Austro-Italian History bears the same tes- 
timony In 1780 the Emperor Joseph II. projected 
a very liberal scheme of political reforms in Austria. 
The papal establishment in Italy made strong oppo- 
sition to the Emperor's policy ; the Pope even jour- 



72 The Science of History 

neyed to Vienna to induce its abandonment. Jo- 
seph was firm, but the persistent opposition of the 
Church blocked the way of progress so much that 
he and his successors were obliged to ultimately 
abandon much of the system. Forty years after- 
ward there was a revolution in Italy, to secure 
something of the same reforms that Joseph had 
projected for Austria. But now the Austrian pol- 
icy had so radically changed that Austrian soldiers 
were sent to Italy to quell the disorder. Truly it 
was a magnanimous service thus to return the com- 
pliment the Pope had paid Austria in 1781. But 
again in 1861 the last remnant of Austria's power 
in Italy was destroyed by popular vengeance and 
French aid, when his ally and Jesuitical brother, 
the l^eapolitan King, evacuated Gaeta, and left Vic- 
tor Emanuel in possession of free Italy. 

XXII. The "Young Italy" movement, which ul- 
timately secured Italian unity and freedom, began 
with a letter of Joseph Mazzini to the King of Sar- 
dinia, in A.D. 1831, exhorting the King to put him- 
self at the head of a popular movement for consti- 
tutional liberty and unity, assuring him that the 
progressive party in every State would cooperate 
with him. It was thus an outgrowth of the French 
Revolution of 1830. The immediate hopes and de- 
signs of the patriots were disappointed, but they 
struggled on in a righteous cause, keeping the eye 
always fixed on the desired end. In A.D. 1871, 
when the former Kins: of Sardinia became Kins: of 
Italy, with his capital at Rome, the policy marked 
out by Mazzini forty years before was triumph- 
antlv successful. 



On an Evangelical Basis. 73 



CHAPTER Y. 

SOME of the greatest wars and revolutions of 
History have been accomplished in a single 
cycle of four years, because of peculiar conditions 
of society ; and where this has not been the case, 
they occupy a time-multiple of four years, and easily 
divisible into subordinate periods of that duration. 

I. Thus, the conquest of Persia, by Alexander, 
beginning with the campaign of the Granicus, 334 
B.C., and ending with the death of Darius, 330 
B.C., occupied four years. By that conquest the 
whole face of civilized history was changed ; the 
social structure of the Persian Empire was honey- 
combed with corruption, hence the speedy collapse. 

The third Punic war, which finally destroyed Car- 
thage, the most formidable rival of Rome, lasted, 
from its inception, four years — from 150 to 146 B.C. 

The personal ministry of Jesus is traditionally said 
to have been three and a-half years in length ; but 
it was preceded by six months of preparatory work 
of John the Baptist; hence, the whole movement 
for the religious and social renovation of the world 
was completed in four years. It has influenced the 
course of History as nothing else ever has. 

The war between the Jews and Romans, in which 
Jerusalem was destroyed, which was the beginning 
of the great contest between revealed religion and 
Western idolatry, began A.D. 06, and ended A.D. 70. 



74 The Scicntc of History 

The civil war between Caesar and the Roman 
Senate — represented at first by Pompey, afterward 
by others — -began 49 B.C., when Cresar overran Italy 
and subdued Spain ; it ended 45 B.C., when he put 
down the last armed opposition, which appeared in 
the rebellion of Spain, at Munda. 

The first crusade, which has exerted such a pro- 
digious influence on Modern History, began with 
the Councils of Placentia and Clermont, A.D. 1095, 
and attained its object in the capture of Jerusalem, 
A.D. 1099. 

The movements which secured religious tolera- 
tion to the Lutherans in Germany occupied four 
years in evolution. In 1547 Charles V. obtained a 
triumph over the Lutherans by gaining over to his 
side Maurice, Duke of Saxony. Having obtained 
the victory, he was not careful to observe the terms 
by which it had been secured ; hence Maurice, 
whose aid had secured his triumph in 1547, set 
about a counter-alliance with the King of France 
in 1551 ; and such was its success, that while Charles 
had assumed to dictate terms to all parties in 1548, 
by the Interim Scheme, in 1552 he was compelled 
to concede the most liberal terms to the Lutherans. 

The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. of France, 
which inaugurated the present system of balance 
of power in Europe, and is universally regarded as 
a great epoch in Modern History, occupied four 
years from its preparatory negotiations in 1493 to 
its complete collapse in 1497. 

The wars of the Fronde, in France, lasted just 
four years to a day. This commotion marks the 



On an Evangelical Basis. 75 

last effort of political liberty under the Bourbon 
regime. Upon its reaction Louis XIV. consolidated 
his absolute system of government, which in its 
turn provoked the terrible revolution of the follow- 
ing century. Louis never coukl have been the au- 
tocrat he became but for the fact that his generation 
was disgusted, by the miserable failures of the 
Fronde, with popular coagency in politics. On the 
22d of October, 1648, the declaration of reform had 
been proclaimed and upheld by insurrection ; Oct. 
22d, 1652, the King reestablished royal authority 
upon a basis that proved permanent. 

The first part of the English Kevolution under 
Charles I. was of exactly four years' duration. The 
Irish Rebellion, in 1641, caused Charles's sincerity 
to be suspected by his opposing Parliament. His 
own subsequent conduct, in Januar}^ 1642, height- 
ened this impression, and in August, 1642, civil 
war commenced. Four years from this time the 
end of the struggle rolled around gradually, as its 
opening had done. In the autumn of 1645 the 
battle of JSTaseby rendered Charles's cause hope- 
less; in the winter of 1645-6 he was reduced to 
extremity; in the summer of 1646 he had fled in 
disguise to the Scots, and was detained by them as 
a helpless prisoner. 

Going back again to Ecclesiastical History, w^e 
find another w^ell-marked example of this law. We 
have already said that the contest between Pope 
Martin I. and the Emperor Constantine was a great 
epoch in ecclesiastical cycles. Its social side is 
equally well marked. Martin began his active op- 



76 The Science of History 

position to the Emperor in the summer of A.D. 649. 
The Emperor immediately desired to arrest and re- 
press him, but the Eoman populace defended him 
so enthusiastically that the imperial officer feared 
to attempt it. It was not until A.D. 653 that this 
course of the Emperor was successful, when Martin 
was. borne a prisoner to Constantinople, and exiled. 
The great War of Secession, which rent the 
United States for a time in twain as by an earth- 
quake of fire and blood, moved, in opening and in 
ending, in most exact fulfillment of this law. Nov. 

13, 1860, the Legislature of South Carolina called 
a convention of the people of the State to consid- 
er the subject of secession. Meeting on Dec. 17, 
the Convention passed the ordinance of secession 
Dec. 20. The movement thus incipient not being 
arrested by compromise, as many hoped and labored 
for, the Federal reenforcement for, and consequent 
attack on. Fort Sumter took place April 4-13, 1861. 
The war-proclamation of Lincoln, drawn up April 

14, was published April 15 in the morning papers; 
April 19 the blockade — a most invaluable war- 
measure of the Federals — was proclaimed; and 
May 24 the first invasion of Virginia, by the occu- 
pation of Alexandria. These several dates show in 
brief outline the succession of some of the leading 
facts in the development of the war. The same 
dates, four years later, show in outline the leading 
facts bringing about the close of the war. Nov. 14, 
1864, Sherman left Atlanta for his march to the sea. 
Completing the investment of Savannah Dec. 17, 
he demanded its surrender, and opened fire. It was 



Oil an Evangelical Basis. 77 

evacuated Dec. 20. It was this march of Sherman 
that first demonstrated the exhaustion of the Con- 
federacy to her own people and to those ahroad ; 
and it bears the same relation to the close that the 
South Carolina secession did to the beginning of 
the war. April 3-13 includes the evacuation of 
Richmond, Lee's disastrous retreat of six days, and 
the last parade of his army for laying down arms, 
on April 12. Lincoln's assassination took place on 
the evening of April 14— four years, to the hour, 
from the time the telegraph had spread the news 
of his forthcoming war- proclamation through the 
Union ; and his death occurred early next morning, 
also four years, to the hour, from the time the morn- 
ing papers confirmed and published that historic 
document. April 18 Johnston's first agreement to 
surrender to Sherman was made, and the last sur- 
render of Confederates took place May 24, four 
years also from the first land invasion of a sover- 
eign State by the Federals. 

The Mexican Expedition of Napoleon IIL was a 
most important undertaking, since it certainly, by 
its humiliating failure, paved the way for the fall of 
the second Empire in France ; it was the Moscow 
of the later Napoleon, as Justin McCarthy well re- 
marks. Its inception was October and November, 
1861— the Secession War having just developed— 
w^hen France, England, and Spain, agreed upon a 
joint intervention to protect their interest. In the 
spring of 1862— the other States, having been satis- 
fied, withdraw— the French Emperor declared his 
purpose of restoring monarchical government there. 



78 The Science of History 

His troops were repulsed in 1862, but reenforcecl, 
they pressed their way to the capital, and proceeded 
to reorganize the Government on a monarchical ba- 
sis in the summer of 1863. The failure of the ex- 
pedition, and the Empire of Maximilian it set up, 
came from the diplomatic intervention of the 
United States. In October, 1865, Maximilian pro- 
ceeded to execute all prisoners falling into his hands 
from the feeble Republican armies, upon the plea 
that thev were banditti rather than bellio^erents. In 
the United States public opinion was aroused, and 
the Government felt itself strong enough to remon- 
strate with France against the continued presence 
of foreign soldiers in America. In 1866 the French 
were thus constrained, by diplomatic pressure, to 
leave gradually, and hope sprang up in the expiring 
Republican armies. In 1867 the evacuation of the 
French was complete, and soon Maximilian fell a 
victim to that bloody policy which he had been the 
first to initiate. Thus, the rise and fall of this Mex- 
ican experiment, through its several critical stages, 
are separated by exactly four years. 

The unification of the German people under the 
lead of Prussia has been one of the greatest devel- 
opments of modern times. It loomed unexpected 
upon the European horizon with the astonishing 
success of Prussia over Austria in 1866. But the 
imperious Napoleon III., the self-appointed arbiter 
of Europe, put his veto upon its immediate comple- 
tion ; and the strongly Catholic South Germany drew 
back from political embrace with the Protestant 
North; so that it was not till France was crushed, 



On an Evangelical Basis. 79 

and the wild tide of war-excited patriotism had re- 
moved the latter obstacle, that the goal was reached 
in 1870. This was just four years after the move- 
ment began in 1866. Even in the strange regions 
of Afghanistan this law is clearly seen to direct the 
course of historic movements. In October, 1838, the 
British Government interfered in the local affairs of 
that far-away land. They w^ere successful at first, 
but the terrible massacre of almost the entire o-arri- 
son left there to hold up English prestige showed in 
a year or two the ferocious character of the people 
with which England had to deal. The cry for ven- 
geance compelled a new invasion of that savage 
race to punish their diabolical treachery and cruelty. 
It succeeded, but the land was evacuated after its 
mission was fallilled. " On the 1st October, 1842, 
exactly four years after Lord Auckland's proclama- 
tion justifying the intervention, Lord Ellenborough 
issued another proclamation revoking the policy of 
his predecessor." But, notwithstanding this, forty 
years after the first attempt the British Government 
made a similar attempt in 1878, which identically 
repeated the experience of the former period, except 
that the massacre (of the embassador's suit) was not 
so extensive as before. This latter intervention was 
provoked by Russian intrigue carried on in 1877. 
British evacuation v/as complete in 1881. 

11. Returning now to consider the instances 
where the great movements are not completed in a 
single cycle, but in several connected cycles, we 
consider first the second Punic w^ar — the greatest 
struo:o:le in which ancient Rome ever eno^asred. An 



80 The Science of History 

early collision with Rome became inevitable when 
Hannibal was appointed Carthaginian commander 
in Spain. He immediately began to prepare for it 
by establishing himself well in that province. He 
became General in 220 B.C.; in 218 he assumed the 
offensive by besieging Saguntim. In 217 he forced 
his w^ay to Italy, and in 216, after the battle of Can- 
nee, he had the great prize almost in his grasp. This 
w^as a turning-point to his fortune, just four years 
after his entrance upon his paternally-bequeathed 
work. Rome now adopted the Fabian policy. She 
had found, to her imminent peril, that Hannibal 
was too great a genius to be crushed with one blow, 
or a series of blows in close succession. Ceasing to 
expose her armies, Hannibal's troops had not the 
opportunities and incentive to maintain the high 
state of discipline that had distinguished them ; and 
himself seemed to lose vigor for the proper field for 
his genius — an open field fight — was wanting. At 
last, after four years more, in 212 B.C., the tide of 
fortune turned perceptibly in favor of Rome, but 
chiefly in the provinces. Syracuse was taken, l^ova 
Carthage fell, and Spain almost recovered, until 
Hannibal, himself besieged by emboldened enemies, 
called Astrubal to his aid in 208 B.C. It was a des- 
perate move. It failed, and left him helpless, except 
by the resource of his great genius. But adverse 
fortune put him more and more at disadvantage, for 
soon Spain was wholly lost to him, and the ardent 
Scipio boldly inaugurated the last cycle in the event- 
ful drama by carrying war into Africa 204 B.C. 
Hannibal was recalled soon after, and on the field 



On an Evangelical Basis. 81 

of Zama, 202, made a last effort to save his country 
ill that fierce contest which he had awakened. He 
failed, peace w\as agreed upon the year after, and in 
200 B.C. Rome and Carthage enter upon new scenes 
of peace to which both had long been strangers. 
Thus the fluctuations of success are seen to have 
been moved in accordance with this law. 

III. In the history of Alexander the Great this 
law is shown in its connected series as well as in 
isolated cycles. The Greek invasion of Persia be- 
gan to assume tangible probability when Philip of 
Macedon w^as chosen Captain-general of the Greek 
armies 338 B.C. The next year the project was 
openly arranged and provided for, but it was tem- 
porarily stopped by Philip's assassination 336. Al- 
exander, for nearly two years, had to make war at 
home to secure himself on his father's throne, so 
that it was not till 334 B.C. that the movement 
which potentially originated in 338 could be put in 
action. From that year till 330 B.C. Alexander 
was occupied with the Persian conquest. When 
Alexander had thus achieved the great work to 
which he had given himself, it only stimulated his 
inflated ambition to still greater conquests. He 
desired now to rank in history with the legendary 
Bacchus and Hercules. Hence a new cancer opened 
before him which led him from victory to victory 
on the very confines of civilization, for four years, 
until he reached and conquered a portion of India 
226 B.C. Here his army refused to follow him 
farther in his crazy career, and he was compelled to 
enter a new cycle by returning to Persia; and he 
6 



82 The Science of History 

set about consolidating his huge domain. He was 
cut off before this necessary work was done, in 223 
B.C. Whereupon the Athenians immediately be- 
gan to concert a revolt, and the next year, by their 
success at Lamia against Antipater and Leontius, 
they put in the entering wedge to the disintegration 
of Alexander's empire. This was 222 B.C. Their 
success was short-lived, but military disorder, once 
introduced into an extensive and unsolidified em- 
pire, could not be exorcised. The result was that 
when 218 B.C. brought a new crisis, it brought also 
the hopeless defeat of Eumenes, the only noble- 
minded, disinterested survivor of the great Mace- 
donian. From the first infraction by the Athenians, 
in 222 B.C., to the crisis of disintegration, in 218 
B.C., the disorder went on increasing until, at the 
latter date, it was well-nigh irretrievable. Thus the 
great historical tide upon which Alexander floated 
to preeminent fame, and which also undermined the 
irorireous fiibric he reared, rose and fell in fluctuat- 
ing ebb and flow of four years in each cycle. 

These two extended examples from the most con- 
spicuous parts of Roman and Grecian History are 
sufiicient to show the prevalence of the principles 
in ancient as well as modern times. The more nu- 
merous instances will be taken from Modern History, 
because this is better known and more entertaining 
to most readers. 

IV. It has already been shown that the civil war 
in England under Charles I. occupied one cycle of 
four years. It will now be shown that the historical 
antecedents and consequents of that war follow the 



On an Evangelical Basis. 83 

same rale. The High-Church policy of Archbishop 
Laud, which sought to force Episcopacy upon Scot- 
land, was the immediate cause of bringing Charles 
and Parliament in opposition, and of placing the 
King in such an attitude that Parliament had every 
advantage in the controversy. This policy was urged 
forward with unwonted vigor in 1637-38 ; it stirred 
up rebellion which compelled Charles to summon 
Parliament, and with resources so reduced that he 
was helpless in their hands. He was unwilling to 
submit to their wishes, and lost their confidence 
entirely in 1641; and in a few months after war 
began. 

Parliament was victorious in the autumn of 1645, 
and Charles was their prisoner in 1646. The subse- 
quent eflbrts of the Scots to interfere failed in 1648, 
and Charles, who had stirred it up by intrigue, paid 
the penalty of failure on the scaffold, January, 1649. 
The Commonwealth was proclaimed at once, and 
by autumn of 1649 was supreme in England and 
Ireland, through Cromwell's efforts. In 1645, when 
Parliament triumphed over Charles, there was little 
thought of a Commonwealth ; but his double-deal- 
ing and mismanagement precipitated it ; and hav- 
ing taken one step in 1645, by humbling the mon- 
archy. Parliament felt forced, in self-defense, to 
take another, four years later, and set up a Com- 
monwealth, But the Scots dissented in the most 
part from the murder of Charles I., and declared for 
his son as rightful sovereign. This action of theirs 
took place in 1650, and opened the war anew. Crom- 
well defeated them in 1651, but almost immediately 



84 The Science of History 

the Commonwealth was involved in war with the 
Dutch, whose Stacltholder had been allied by mar- 
riage with Charles. The success of this war in 
1653, and peace established next year, confirmed 
the Commonwealth four years after its proclamation. 
Cromwell now becomes the single figure of the 
State. In the crisis of 1645 he, as colonel of cav- 
alry, did the fighting that decided the day at i^ase- 
by; in 1649 he was the first man in his party, the 
ablest general of the army, and in command in Ire- 
land. In the arduous war for the Commonwealth 
against Scotland and the Dutch, he was almost dic- 
tator in military affairs, and now as they close suc- 
cessfully he becomes supreme over Parliament also. 
In four years the Puritans have found that a Com- 
monwealth would not run itself — it needed some 
one to preside over and defend it. This is a step 
toward reaction, but only a step. Again, in 1657, 
afiFairs came to a crisis in the almost successful proj- 
ect of making Cromwell King. The determined 
opposition of the army ofiicers, and the violent 
pamphleteers teaching that in some cases " killing is 
no murder," defeated the scheme. The next year 
Cromwell died. 1659 was a year of disorder, un- 
certainty, and reaction. In 1660 Charles 11. returned 
as King, and in 1661 the regicides were tried and 
executed. This fact marks the complete change 
that intervened in four years. In 1657 Cromwell, 
the chief of the regicides, was within only a step of 
the murdered King's throne, while in 1661 the in- 
ferior actors in the bloody drama were executed for 
a subordinate part performed. Thus, from 1637-41 



On an Evangelical Basis. 85 

to 1657-61, the four -years' cycle is seen in well- 
marked force. 

V. The wild tumults and chaotic disorders of the 
French Revolution obeyed the same law. From 
July to December, 1789, the spirit of the French 
Revolution of 1789 was well disclosed. The people 
then had supreme control, but desired ardently only 
a constitutional monarchy ; but the emigrating no- 
bles and the absolute monarchs of Prussia and Aus- 
tria stirred up w\ar. The work of the Reformation 
was just completed with w^onderful success in 1791, 
when foreign invasion of France was organized to 
force upon her a despotic monarchy. Enraged at 
the insolent and iniquitous attempt, and maddened 
to desperation by the unfortunate success which at 
first attended the scheme, the French, with passion- 
ate ardor, rushed through mere defiance into the 
most violent Republicanism. Monarchy was abol- 
ished, king and nobles guillotined — even conserva- 
tive Republicans were driven to revolt at Lyons, 
Marseilles, and Lavender. Confronted with united 
Europe in arms on the frontiers, the Convention 
found itself divided with formidable civil wars at 
home in the summer of 1793. For a time it seemed 
impossible to sustain the movement begun in 1789 
against such strong and manifold enemies. But 
nothing could resist the enthusiasm of that mad- 
dened Republican spirit. From July to December, 
1793, it crushed opposition at home, and put to flight 
allied armies on the frontier — thus averting the 
fate which so greatly threatened it with immediate 
destruction. Thus the movement, begun to reform 



80 The Science of History 

France in 1789, became extreme and successful 
revolution in 1793. 

Reaction from such a high tension of public ex- 
citement was inevitable, while great military success 
among undisciplined armies was sure to cause ela- 
tion that would lead in turn to reverses. Not long 
after the crisis of 1793 reaction began. Eobespierre 
was displaced, the Directory instituted, the sections 
were defeated in 1795, and some stability secured. 
But the military reverses in Italy threatened France 
with a great danger. This was averted by Napo- 
leon's genius, and by his matchless exploits. Peace 
was restored with Austria, the last important Con- 
tinental State then at war with France, in October, 
1797. At the same time the Bourbon reaction was 
crushed by the troops of Bonaparte under Auge- 
reau. From 1793 to 1797 France had passed from 
wild internal disorder to the far more stable Direc- 
tory, and from armed conflict with united Europe 
to highly-honorable peace with all nations except 
England, and that was defeated only by the unrea- 
sonable exactions of the Directory. This single 
mistake of the Directory in 1797 was the cause of 
renewed wars and internal commotions which were 
not pacificated till 1801. The Egyptian expedition 
of Napoleon followed; then the second coalition of 
Europe against France renewed the continental war 
with much success. This led to the overthrow of 
the Directory and the establishment of the Consu- 
late, with Napoleon chief executive oflicer of France. 
In 1800 the victories of Marengo and Hohenlinden 
compelled Austria to seek peace; Russia had with- 



On an Evangelical Basis. 87 

drawn, and the capture of the French in Egypt led 
to peace being arranged with England in 1801. 
Thus 1801 saw peace once again descending upon 
the whole European family of nations. But the 
elements of war were soon ready to break loose 
again. In 1803 France and England were again in 
conflict. At first it was a single-handed and desul- 
tory contest, but its development was such that in 
the autumn of 1805 nearly all Europe was again 
arrayed against France. Thus the flames of a gen- 
eral European war, which had been happily sup- 
pressed in 1801, were renewed in 1805. Here begins 
IS'apoleon's career as the Arbiter of Europe. In 
1805 the capture of Ttlm and the victory of Auster- 
lit25 prostrated Austria before him. The next year 
Prussia was crushed at Jena and Auerstadt ; the 
year following Kussia was brought to terms, and 
Portugal seized ; in 1808 Spain was overran ; and 
in 1809 Austria, seeking to take advantage of the 
Spanish war to recover her former position, was 
defeated and brought to terms in October, 1808. So 
that Napoleon, beginning his European career by 
the victories of Ulm, in October, and Austerlitz, in 
December, 1805, had completely established himself 
as the Arbiter of the Continental Nations, by the 
peace with Austria in October, 1809, and his enforced 
espousal of a Ilapsburg bride in December, 1809. 
This last fact was a humiliation to which nothing 
but the sternest necessity could have driven the 
Austrian Emperor — it well marks therefore the 
completeness of Napoleon's power at that time. 
But even in his highest glory many things pre- 



88 The Science of History 

saged the downfall of ISTapoleoii. If he had a prov- 
idential mission in the world, it certainly was as 
an uncompromising opponent and reformer of the 
political and international methods that had cor- 
ruptly ruled so long in Europe. The tide of Kepub- 
hcan principles upon which he rode to power was 
irreconcilably opposed to these old and mischievous 
institutions. But at the very height of his triumphs 
over them, Napoleon radically changed the whole 
spirit of the new^ imperial regime by the Austrian 
alliance. He fell into the errors of ancient heroes, 
and bowed down to w^orship the gods of the people 
he had been providentially raised up to exterminate. 
Since 1805 Napoleon had been alienating the French 
national feeling from himself — lirst by the restora- 
tion of empire, then by nobility; and when he 
joined himself to the house of Austria, it was only 
a reproduction of the reign of Louis XVI., for Louis 
had contracted a similar marriage exactly forty years 
before, and the feeling of devotion was chilled. 
Then repeated reverses had compelled the kingdoms 
of Europe to seek recuperation and popular sympa- 
thy by reforming many abuses. In a few years 
these wholesome changes more than doubled their 
power to resist foreign aggression, while Napoleon, 
inflated by his continued success, ran at an ever- 
increasing rate of arrogance, stirring up all the 
hatred of united Europe against him and France. 
All these forces were in full development, and pro- 
ducing their inevitable result, when the cycle came 
to a close upon the fated field of Leipzig, October, 
1813, exactly four years after the peace with Aus- 



On an Ecangelical Basis. 89 

tria. The attitude of Austria was the decisive fac- 
tor in that historic campaign. After Leipzig, Na- 
poleon went surelj^ and steadily down. In June, 
1815, the last hope was extinguished— France was 
consigned to foreign occupation, which Tvas grad- 
ually removed from October, 1817, to October, 1818. 
Thus the great periods in which such master-spirits 
as Cromwell and Napoleon figured, as well as those 
in which Alexander and Hannibal moved, are guided 
in their development by the law of four-years' cy- 
cles. 

VI. The great movement by which the United 
States was developed as an independent member in 
the family of nations proceeded in exact accordance 
with the same law. In 1749 the F'rench possessed 
Canada in the north, and Louisiana in the south, 
and they were pressing forward to establish overland 
connections between the two possessions, thus cut- 
ting off the English colonies on the Atlantic coast 
from any extensive development to the westward. 
In 1749 the grant of a large tract of land by the 
English King to the Ohio Company, intended to 
encourage westward movements of the colonies, 
became the occasion of a collision between these 
natives and their colonies. In 1751-52 violence to 
individual traders brought matters to a diplomatic 
crisis, which occurred when Washington was sent, 
October, 1753, on the celebrated mission to the 
Erench commandant, St. Pierre. The mission led 
to war in 1754, in which Washington was driven 
back by superior force; to Braddock's defeat in 
1755; to continued French successes throughout 



90 Th^ Science of Hisiofy 

1756--5T. tip to that time there were four years of 
disaster, but in October, iToT, the prospect changes. 
The elder Pitt became Prime Minister in June, 1T57, 
but his way to perfectly control War affairs was not 
opened till the resignation of the incapable Duke 
of Cumberland from the chief command of the 
English armies in October, 1757. Bringing his 
splendid genius and popular methods to bear upon 
the American disasters, thej^ were immediately re- 
trie ved. In 1758 Louisburg and B^ort Duquesue 
were captured ; in 1759 Quebec and Prouinac were 
taken; in 1760 all Canada was conquered; and in 
1761 the Soutliern Indians, stirred up by French 
influence, were crushed. Pour years of such victo- 
ries as marked the genius of Alexander, C-^esar, and 
I^apoleon, had sprung up under Pitt's administra- 
tion, when a gloomy shadow came over the bright 
prospect. Thwarted by a headstrong boy of a king, 
George IIL, the high-spirited Pitt resigned October, 
1761. His resignation was an irreparable loss to 
America and Pngland— -it is not too much to say 
that it has most decisively affected the history of 
the world. Had he remained in ofSce, the stupid 
and guilty scheme to tax A.merica without her con- 
sent would never have been engaged in; hence, the 
American Revolution, the French Revolution, and 
the Napoleonic wars, might never have taken place. ' 
Of course, the work of popular progress would not 
have been arrested, but it would never have taken 
the bloody form it did. Four years after the resig- 
nation of her great benefactor, America was almost 
in the attitude of rebellion against England. The 



0)1 an Evangelical Basis, 91 

first Continental Congress met in October, 1765, to 
remonstrate against the Stamp Act. The repeal 
took place the next year, and comparative qniet 
was restored; but in 1767 an attempt was made to 
renew the tax in another form. Severe repressive 
measures were passed the next year in Parliament, 
tending to destroy liberty of speech and trial by 
jurj^ in America, and again the Vvdiole of the colo- 
nies were agitated with tremendous excitement. In 
October, 1769, the non-importation leagues had been 
universally established, Georgia and Rhode Island 
adhering in September and October of that year. 
Kon-importation gained a colonial triumph over 
Parliament then, as the Congress had done in 1765, 
and in 1770 the tax was abolished except on tea, 
which W%a3 retained as a pledge that Parliament 
w^ould not give up its alleged right to levy tax. It 
was a mistake fatal to the future peace and union 
of the British Empire, and it produced its legitimate 
results four years afterward. Kot admonished by 
its repeated failures to force America to terms, the 
Parliament tried the mingled measure of bribery 
and tax in the Tea Importation Act of 1773. There 
was a strange calmness in the way it was received 
in America —» there was no Congress called — no 
renewal of non- importation leagues. The peo[»le 
seemed to have realized that an armed contest over 
principle must come, and they awaited its natural 
development. The key-note of popular feeling was 
sounded in a public meeting in Philadelphia, Octo- 
ber 16-18, 1773, at which the address adopted de- 
clared all who aided this scheme of taxation iJuhlic 



92 The Science of History 

enemies. The first act of riotous resistance to the 
law took place in Boston, December 16, 1773, but 
the Boston public meeting had adopted the Phila- 
delphia confession, and it excited disorder there 
only because the popular will was more obstinately 
resisted. The policy originated at Philadelphia, 
October 16-18, 1773. 

We need not give even an outline of Revolution- 
ary History. Suffice it to say that it consists of two 
well-marked cycles — the first, a strictly colonial 
struggle, indexed by the public declaration at Phil- 
adelphia, Oct. 16-18, 1773, and terminating at the 
surrender of Burgoyne, Oct. 17, 1777 ; the second, 
an international w*ar, drawing in France, Spain, and 
Holland, as active participators, and all the ISTorth of 
Europe as armed neutrals. The surrender of Bur- 
goyne determined France to intervene, and thus 
opened the second cycle; the surrender of Corn- 
wallis, Oct. 19, 1781, closed this cycle by showing 
that America could not be subdued, and hence in- 
clining England to peace as soon as honorable terras 
could be arranged. The permanence of the United 
States, under the Articles of Confederation, was thus 
secured ; but in four years it was seen that the Gov- 
ernment was sadly inadequate to the demands of the 
emergency. In October, 1785, the first movements 
to amend and perfect the United States Government 
were made in some almost private and informal dis- 
cussions of some of the leading statesmen of Vir- 
ginia, among whom was Washington. In 1789 the 
great revision and reorganization was just completed 
by the session of the First Congress, ending Sept. 



On an EiHtngeliccd Basis. 93 

26, 1789, and the organization of Washington's Cab- 
inet. Washington began his career in connection 
with the affairs of the Ohio Company, whose insti- 
tution in 1749 had put in motion the causes leading 
to the independence of the United States, and now, 
forty years afterward, he is the guide and stay of 
the nation thus brought forth. 

VII. In the recent history of the United States 
this is again seen in the development of the anti- 
slavery movement. Beginning in germ 1832 with 
a single society, it developed rapidly toward the 
close of 1833, and became, from its wide-spread and 
influential organization, a national movement in 
1834. This mushroom vigor of the early growth 
was not altogether normal, but was unduly stimu- 
lated by the contemporary action of Great Britain 
in abolishing slavery in the West Indies in 1833-34. 
It was energetically opposed, and met its first decided 
reverse in the debates of the United States Senate 
in 1838, in which States-rights doctrines were ad- 
mitted as a fundamental and coordinate power in 
our system of government. In 1842 the antislavery 
movement advanced in several important ways: 
First, under Webster's negotiation the right of search 
was admitted to England to aid in the suppression 
of the slave-trade, and the cooperation of the United 
States secured to that movement. Second, it pro- 
duced a division in the Methodist Church under the 
lead of Orange Scott. This was small numerically, 
but its influence was prodigious in bringing about 
the greater division of that wide-spread body two 
years later. In 1846 the famous Wllmot Proviso 



94 The Science of History 

agitated the political parties of the Union ; in 1850 
the California question turned upon the question of 
slavery; in 1854 the Kansas-I^ebraska Bill, and in 
1858 the Kansas admission question, were all inti- 
mately connected with this question. In 1862 slav- 
ery was forbidden in the Territories, and several in- 
cipient measures taken for general and immediate 
emancipation, which was formally declared Jan. 
1, 1863. This w^as fully established in 1865, and 
another advance made in 1866 in the civil-rights' 
legislation of Congress. Finall}^, the constitutional 
amendment securing to former slaves the right to 
vote equally with all other classes of population was 
adopted in 1870. Thus the critical stages of this 
great movement conformed to the cyclical law of 
four years. 

VIII. The current political cycle of European 
affairs illustrates this law. The present liberal move- 
ment o^rew out of the German Catholic reformation 
of Rouge and Czerski in 1845. It was a popular 
protest against relic-worship, as upheld by Arnoldi, 
Bishop of Treves, in the pilgrimage to the so-called 
''Holy Coat" of Treves in 1844. At first it was 
purely religious, and in 1845 was enthusiastically 
welcomed by all classes in Germany ; but the polit- 
ical authorities began to interfere to arrest its prog- 
ress, and with some success. Meantime the Jesuit- 
ical Pope Gregory XVI. died, and was succeeded by 
Pope Pius IX. in 1846. Well understanding that the 
spirit of this age was against mediaeval papacy, he 
tried to turn aside the rising tide of religious ref- 
ormation by political liberalism. The idea of a Pope 



On an Uvanffelical Basis. 95 

playing this strange ro^e was electrical: it inspired 
Italy with new life; it stirred France so deeply that 
Louis Philippe, attempting to repress it, it broke 
forth in revolution in 1848. Austria and Prussia 
caught the infection, and were convulsed with pop- 
ular commotion. The Pope hesitated, and attempted 
to reverse his policy at a critical period, and was 
driven from Rome, and a Republic declared there. 
But a reaction set in in 1849, when Louis Kapoleon, 
President of the French Republic, suppressed the 
Roman Republic, Russia joined with Austria to sup- 
press the Hungarian Republic, and Prussia, the rep- 
resentative of national ideas, declined to act against 
Austria. In 1850 the prospect rendered so bright 
by the liberal policy of Pius in 1846 was completely 
overcast. Louis Napoleon was preparing to rees- 
tablish the Empire in France; the Pope, entirely 
changed in principles by his experience, returned 
to Rome ; Prussia retired from her rivalry of Aus- 
tria, and Hungary was under military rule of the 
most rigid nature. The progress of Jesuitical reac- 
tion is seen in the dogma of the Immaculate Con- 
ception, declared in 1854; it showed that the Pope 
had given himself completely to the medieov^al spirit 
he protested against in 1846, but by which he had 
been restored in 1850. But in the darkness, one 
incident that led afterward to a new flood of liberal 
light was the splendid diplomacy of Cavour, which 
availed itself of the exigency of the Crimean War, 
in 1854, to bring Napoleon III. in debt to Sardinia, 
and commit him to the liberation of Italy from 
Austria. This alliance with England and France 



96 The Science of History 

did not begin to yield its intended fruit until four 
years afterward. In 1858 the alliance to deliver 
Italy was ready to engage in the work at once. In 
1859 Austria was defeated, and ^N'orthern Italy partly 
redeemed ; in 1860 Southern Italy was added also 
to Sardinia. In 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was 
proclaimed, and the capital set up at Florence. In 
1862 another attempt was made by Garabaldi to 
complete the work of deliverance and unification 
for Italy. But now Kapoleon, the man who aided 
the beginning of the work in 1858, put himself in 
decided opposition to it, and its completion was ar- 
rested for exactly four years. In this very year 1862 
Bismarck was appointed Prime Minister of Prussia, 
and immediately began that thorough organization, 
that vigorous administration, which four years after- 
ward enabled him to crush Austria and aid Italy so 
effectively. Thus, the very year that Napoleon drew 
back from his providential mission (to reform the 
Papacy), a man was raised up who, four years after- 
ward, took his first step in this his great life-work. 
Italy was aided, and Austria liberalized, by this great 
movement in 1866. In 1870 Italy was completely 
united, and France became Republican. In 1874 the 
German Empire and the Papacy were drawn into an 
open conflict, which gave no sign of relenting till 
the death of Pius IX. in 1878, and the election of 
a liberal Pope in his stead. There has been steady 
progress toward accommodation since. But as the 
breach is closed toward Germany, it has opened 
toward France ; so that as Prussia was raised up in 
1862 and 1866 to complete the work which Imperial 



On an Evangelical Basis. 97 

France had fViiled to do, the indications of Provi- 
dence are that Republican France will be called to 
carry on the contest of liberal governments against 
Jesuitical Rome when Germany retires from the 
contest, as she now seems preparing to do. Thus 
for nearly forty years the liberal movement has gone 
on in Europe, developing some new crisis each cycle 
of four 3^ears' progress. 

Analmost innumerable array of instances and illus- 
trations of these truths might be produced, but the 
foregoing are sufficient for the purposes of this brief 
treatise. If these are not sufficient to convince one of 
the fact that the great historical movements of the 
past and present are regulated and directed in the 
most minute details and precise manner by systemat- 
ic and discernible laws of Providence, then a fuller 
array of similar testimony would fail also to accom- 
plish that result. These principles, however, it must 
be remarked, will never appear in their own clear 
light and force until all the details of History are so 
arranged as to exhibit them in their true and natural 
connections. The art of writing History so as to 
display the designs and laws of Providence therein 
has not yet been acquired ; when it shall be attained, 
men will be astonished at the revelations it will dis- 
close. 
7 



98 The Science of History 



CHAPTER VI. 

AS a corollary to the proposition at the begin- 
ning of this treatise, the following subordinate 
aw is maintained: Upon a closer study of the sev- 
eral cycles of History, it wmII appear that a secondary 
crisis occurs in each cycle exactly at its middle point 
of time. Thus Abraham, in the twenty-first cent- 
ury of the world's history, is a middle point both in 
time and in spiritual development between Adam 
and Jesus. Thus too tlie wide-spread Roman Re- 
public, about B.C., with its liberal system of law 
and cultured civilization, came nearer delivering: 
the world from irresponsible absolutism, desolating 
wars, and national isolation, than any subsequent or 
preceding age; hence, it was a middle point in spir- 
itual progress as well as in time between the golden 
age of patriarchal peace and liberty, in Noah's time, 
and that golden age of progress and freedom to 
which Christianity is now conducting the world. 

Again, in Ecclesiastical History: Joseph's career 
in Egypt, 1731 B.C., is exactly mediate between 
Abraham in 1931 and Moses in 1531. (These dates 
are not given precisely, but to indicate the connec- 
tions of events.) Again, Elijah's career, about 911 
B.C., was a similar stage between Samuel, about 
1111, and Isaiah, 711 B.C. The virtual toleration 
of Christianity in the second century, under Aure- 
lius and Antoninus, was a preliminary and medium 



On an Evangelical Basis. 99 

step to its complete triumph in the fourth century. 
The ao:iyressive movement of the Crusades besfan 
with Peter the Hermit in 1093; the last foothold 
on Palestine was lost in 1291 — ;just about two hun- 
dred years. The celebrated contest of the popes 
with the house of Hohenstaufen began almost at the 
time of the accession of Gregory VIL, A.D. 1073 ; 
the last male heir was murdered by the popes' con- 
trivance in 1268, and the reorganization of the Ger- 
man Empire followed under papal auspices in A.D. 
1273. 

So also in political cycles: In 1640 Charles I. of 
Englatid was reduced to the necessity, by the suc- 
cess of the Scotch rebellion, to summon Parliament 
under such conditions as rendered him helpless 
in their hands. The revolution thus inaugurated 
reached a second crisis in 1660, when Charles TI. 
was restored, through the agency of Monk, com- 
mander of the army from Scotland. 

Tlie wild extreme of the French Republican era 
was successfully developed in opposition to foreign 
invasion in 1793; its course could not be curbed 
till 1813, at Leipzig. From 1761, when the English 
gained entire control of the North American conti- 
nent, to 1781, when they lost it again, was a twenty- 
years' half-cycle. The reactionary policy of Louis 
Napoleon began in 1849-50, when he repressed the 
Roman Republic, and restored the Pope. He col- 
lapsed in twenty years' time — 1869-70. 

In the social cycles a similar principle prevails. 
The revolutionary contest began virtually October, 
1773, when the policy upon which America spouta- 



100 The. Science of History. 

neously acted was first publicly and solemnly pro- 
claimed; but the breach was not considered irrev- 
ocable till the King rejected the last overture for 
peace in October, 1775. Again, in the cooperation 
of French and American forces, which the surrren- 
der ot Burgoyne brought about, and the siege of 
Savannah, October, 1779, were exactly intermediate 
between the triumph of Saratoga and that of York- 
town, October, 1781. 

In the war of secession, the decisive campaigns 
of Gettysburg and Vicksburg began in April, 1863, 
at the middle point between the opening of the w^ar, 
April, 1861, and its close, April, 186e5. Its fortune 
foreshadowed the complete collapse which came two 
years later. 

If it be conceded that these cited examples give 
a fair showing of demonstration to tlie theory of 
cyclical epochs we have advanced, the way is there- 
by opened to study the development and propaga- 
tion of true religion, government, and society on 
the earth, under these providential laws. Thus the 
Moral History of mankind, under the infallible tu- 
torship of an ever-present and perfect Providence, 
becomes a possibility of the near future. The bear- 
ing of this theory upon the miracles of propliecy 
among the Hebrew^s is of the utmost importance, 
and its explanations of the oracles of paganism are 
equally satisfactory. If the reception of this trea- 
tise by the public encourages to a continuance of 
these studies, these topics ma}^ be treated in a sub- 
sequent publication. 



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